Sticking Together
by Nonny The Anon One
Summary: Part 3 of a series: Our friends must fight for their lives against their worst enemies. Will Danny be a casualty of this war? DxS
1. Chapter 1

**Hello, you are reading part three of a series. This story might stand alone, but I doubt it. If you want to understand it completely please read Just Like Dear Old Dad and Mum's The Word.**

**This starts out slow but it will pick up!  
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**Standard disclaimer applies. Which means I do not have any claim on the characters I'm writing. I do not own them, nor did I create them, much to my dismay.  
**

**Summary: Our friends must fight for their lives against their worst enemies. Will Danny be a casualty of this war?**

**Sticking Together**

Sam sat up gasping and in a sweat. She looked around the room. It was unfamiliar and heightened her nightmare. She was in a sleeping bag on the floor. What floor? Where? She crawled over to the nearest thing to hide under, still in the grip of her nightmare. She could hear small keening noises as she rocked back and forth, but didn't have the awareness to realize the sounds were coming from her. The door open and a figure entered the room. It was him! He was coming for her. She had to hide. She huddled tighter into space under the desk and began to cry.

"Sam?" Danny asked as he knelt down and looked under the desk. Her distress was obvious. He just wasn't sure what caused it. "Sam it's me Danny are you all right?" He thought about reaching under the desk and pulling her out, but was afraid that he might hurt her, so instead he took a deep breath and crawled in with her. He put his arms around her and pulled her close.

"It's okay Sam. You're safe here. I won't let anything happen to you."

"Danny?" Sam whispered and cuddled into his embrace. "Don't let him out Danny," she said urgently. Danny could feel the wetness of her tears as she buried her face into his neck.

"Who?" Danny asked as he patted her back.

"Dan." Sam sobbed. "Don't let him get me." Danny's heart constricted painfully as his mind was rushed with thoughts of his evil counterpart. He cuddled her until she drifted into a restful sleep. He felt so bad, as though all her nightmares were his fault. He couldn't blame her from having them either. He closed his eyes as he leaned against the wall and fell asleep.

"Danny!" Jazz hissed as she kicked at his feet. Danny opened his eyes blearily and became aware of Sam still sleeping, practically curled up in his lap, and Jazz standing over him, looking exasperated. Danny eased away from her and stood. His whole body felt cramped and achy.

"What happened?" she asked as she pointed down to Sam who was still sleeping. Danny lead Jazz out of the room. They stood in the hall for a moment, looking around then Danny pulled her into his room.

"Nightmare," Danny said tiredly. "Bad nightmare."

"Why didn't I wake up?" Jazz asked keeping her voice hushed. Danny shrugged his shoulders. "Sam's been through a life and death situation and then under the influence of a ghost All that and having to deal with the whole evil Dan issue. You should have woken me up. I could have helped. " Jazz said then shivered. She'd been through a lot too. Not nearly as much as Sam, but she could certainly understand the nightmares. There was a soft knock on the door. Danny opened it to find Sam standing there, still looking sleepy.

"Are you two going to stand there talking about me all day or are we going to get ready for school?" she asked dryly.

"School!" Jazz said and rushed out of the room. Sam smiled a little as she watched her go.

"Did you sleep all right?" Sam asked.

Danny gave her a sheepish smile. "Not really," he answered. "I'm really worried about you Sam I.."

"Stop!" Sam said as she held up both her hands. "I'm not a baby Danny. I hate that you're all talking about me like I am. I can rescue myself very well thank you!"

Danny rubbed the back of his neck and sighed. "I know Sam, but…"

"No!" Sam said as she shook her head. "You're not going to start leaving me out of things because of some weird need to protect me or because I'm your girlfriend. You never had to before and you don't have to now."

"Okay," Danny agreed. He knew better than to argue with Sam. She gave him a narrowed eyed glare then smiled slightly and kissed him on the cheek.

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Tucker had already arrived and was sitting at the table looking skeptically at something Maddie placed in front of him, which she called, "Eggs, scrambled" but to Tucker it looked more like cooked ectoplasam, scrambled.

Danny, Sam and Jazz all entered the kitchen and almost turned and left when they saw the green on Tucker's plate. But Maddie had already turned around. "Oatmeal for Sam," she said placing a bowl on the table with substance which looked and smelled just like oatmeal inside.

"Can I have oatmeal too?" everyone asked in unison then looked at each other. Maddie gave them all irritated looks.

"You realize," Tucker said as he moved his "eggs" around his plate. "That we are entering today at a serious disadvantage."

"Liability?" Jazz asked.

"I hate that word." Danny said as he swiped a bite of Sam's oatmeal she smacked his hand and he gave her puppy dog eyes. Sam smiled and ruffled his hair. He grabbed her hand and kissed it. Sam grinned and moved her bowl of oatmeal toward him. They smiled at each other a little while longer until they realized Jazz, Tucker and Maddie were strangely silent. They looked away from each other to find Jazz and Tucker leaning their heads on their hands with their elbows on the table and smiling at them. Maddie was grinning too. Both blushed.

"Ooohh!" Jack said as he entered the room oblivious to the embarrassed lovebirds and the teasing spies. "Ectoeggs! Yum" He swiped Tucker's plate and sat down. Tucker gave him a relieved look.

"You were saying something about a liability?" Danny reminded Tucker.

"Oh yeah!" Tucker said. "The thermos. We won't have one today. We only had two and well, they're rather occupied as the moment."

"Fenton Thermos," Jack said. "Hmmmm yes." He shoved a fork full of ectoeggs into his mouth then reached down and threw something at Danny.

"Hey!" Danny said in surprise as he caught it. "Another Fenton Thermos?"

Jack turned his attention away from his eggs for a moment an looked at Danny. "Uhh No!" he said as he grabbed the thermos away from his son. "Wrong one." He handed Danny an alternate thermos then opened the one he took back from Danny. He smiled grandly then put the lid on quickly and looked at Maddie, who kept her back to him. He grinned at his son and gave him the thumbs up sign.

Maddie turned around and sniffed the air for a moment. "Do I smell coffee?" she asked. Then looked straight at Jack. "You don't have coffee do you? You know I've been trying to get you to cut back on the caffeine!"

"But Maddie," Jack whined. "It's decaf!"

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"Your father makes me seriously nervous," Tucker said as they walked from the house. "Are you sure the thermoses with Vlad and Dark Dan are safe with him?"

"Not really," Danny said as he grimaced and rubbed the back of his neck.

"Mom will watch out for them," Jazz said as she caught up with the trio. Danny gave her an annoyed look and she smiled.

"It's not like the thermoses would be any safer if we carried them with us all day," Sam said thoughtfully.

"Dad is already working on a permanent container," Jazz said. "All he needs is a ghost to test it on."

Danny tried not to look scared. "Either he's thinking it's going to be me or…" he paled. "Listen guys," he said as he looked around then went ghost. "I really need to check on something. I'll see you at school!" Then he was gone.

"What no kiss good bye?" Sam yelled after him. She looked at Tucker who was smirking. "Shut up!" she said then smacked his arm.

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Danny flew into the lab and stopped. The canisters were still sitting in the containment field and Jack Fenton was sitting at his work space fiddling with some wires and talking to himself.

"Green is mean." He said. "Green is mean. Yellow is mellow. The yellow wire connects here and the green wire connects there. The red wire is for fire. No fire. No fire! Ha ha ha ha ha!" Danny snorted to himself and did his best to keep from laughing. His father was very strange. Danny was just about to materialize when his mother came down the stairs.

"I've been thinking," She said as she stopped and looked at the canisters. "If we increased the resonance on the outer layer then perhaps it will make the thermos stronger."

"Or break it up all together," Jack said as he looked up from his work. "Think we should try?"

"No," Maddie said. "I've been reading some of Vlad's notes. He has a shield which works on both humans and ghosts. I think we need to get one up and running ourselves. We need protection…just in case."

"Just in case what?" Jack asked.

"Just in case we can't figure out how to keep these two villains contained permanently," Maddie said then walked over to Jack and watched him work.

Danny didn't have time to stay any longer and watch. He felt pretty comfortable that they weren't going to mess with the thermos. He left the house and zoomed to school. He caught up with Sam and Tucker just as they closed their lockers.

"Everything ok?" Sam asked. Danny nodded.

"Dude," Tucker said. "It's not going to help anything to be so paranoid. Just relax." Danny looked at him for a moment then nodded his head. They all had to separate for their first classes so they prepared to say good by until lunch.

Danny was able to at least walk Sam to her class. "I'll see you at lunch," She said. "Quit stressing!" She then turned and walked into her class and came face to face with none other than Dash Baxter.

"So," Dash said as he leaned against the wall. "You and your loser boyfriend going to be at the dance tonight? Showing up so we can humiliate him? You really could hang with the cool kids Manson. Why do you insist on being a geek?"

"Why do you insist on being such a jerk?" Sam asked. Anger flickered in Dash's eyes. Sam moved to walk by him.

"Why don't you just ditch the geek and go to the dance with me tonight?" he asked. Sam shot him a look which would have killed if by chance looks could kill. She sat down at her desk and tried to take notes as the teacher lectured, but her mind wandered.

How easy would it be for her to just walk away? She could be normal again, not that she ever considered herself normal or wanted to be, but she could be normal for her. She could turn her back on all the ghosts and ghost fighting and the craziness that went along with it. She'd defiantly no longer be a target for ghosts. She and Tucker were only targets by association with Danny. But turning her back on Danny would be unthinkable. Tears started to sting her eyes and she rested her head on her hand as she drew squiggles on her notebook instead of notes. She just needed a break from all the ghost madness. Hopefully the dance would provide that break, that is if she could keep Danny's mind off of the two villains now residing in Fenton Thermoses at his house. She felt something hit her head and looked up to find Dash throwing paper clips at her. Great, on top of everything today was the day Dash decided to take his harassment up a notch, that meant keeping him away from Danny.

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"Nice jewelry," Tucker said as they met and walked down the hall together. Sam gave him a confused look and he reached over and pulled a paper clip out of her hair. Sam sighed as she looked at the little piece of metal.

"Dash," She said under her breath.

Tucker shook his head as he pulled another paper clip from Sam's hair. "He's giving you a hard time?"

"Yeah," Sam answered. "We need to keep him away from Danny if at all possible. You know if he's harassing me that…" Suddenly they heard loud voices the sound of someone being pounded up against a locker. They were expecting to see Danny against the wall and Dash being the threat, but this time the roles were mind bogglingly reversed. Sam and Tucker stood for a moment then broke out of their daze and ran forward to stop Danny from pounding Dash's head through the lockers.

"Danny stop!" Sam ordered as she grabbed Danny who was angry beyond reason. Tucker looked around for Lancer. A crowd had begun to form and people were whispering.

"Yeah do like your little Gothy girl says and let me go Fentino," Dash said from his position against the wall, acting as if he had total control of the situation. Sam knew it was an act for the crowd. "You sure are a touchy little girl today. Got your period or something?" Danny growled something unintelligible and slammed Dash against the locker again.

Sam felt a frisson of fear go through her at the sight of Danny's anger. Tucker courageously stepped between Danny and Dash. He put his hand on Danny's chest and pushed him back.

"It's not worth it man," he said to Danny. "This is Dash Baxter, Danny. Not our worst enemy."

"Oh I am your worst enemy Fen Ton," Dash laughed. Now that he was free. He looked over at Sam for a second and smirked. "You're lucky your skank girl and little techno geek friend here came to rescue you, or you'd get a butt kicking right about now." Danny leveled his glowing green gaze at Dash, but Dash had already started his escape, brushing past Sam in the process pinching her on the….

"Hey!" Sam squeaked. "Keep your hands to yourself you creep!" she said then immediately wished she kept quiet as Danny ripped himself from Tucker's grasp and lunged for Dash. Luckily Sam stepped between them and Dash was able to escape, laughing as he ran down the hall.

"Danny stop!" Sam yelled as she forced Danny to look at her. "Stop!" His glowing green gaze met hers. "There are worse things than Dash Bastard," she whispered. "He's not worth it."

"Dash Bastard?" Tucker said then laughed. Danny said nothing as his glowing green gaze locked with Sam's eyes. She could still feel the tension in his body as she held on to him. She could tell he was still ready to fight.

"You're really scaring me Danny," she whispered and with that all the fight and rage went out of Danny and he looked away and apologized.

"What did Dash say to make you so mad," Tucker asked.

"It doesn't matter," Danny said as he kept his eyes to the ground. "You're right he's not our worst enemy. Tucker and Sam looked at each other questioningly.

"Maybe we should just go to lunch," Tucker suggested.

"Yeah," Sam agreed as they lead Danny away to the cafeteria, where Paulina awaited them. Paulina and thankfully, Valerie.

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**I know I said I wasn't going to put up a new story until after the new year, but I've been inspired and am far enough ahead and mapped out enough on this story that I don't fear the "don't disappoint people" rush. In fact I am feeling the need for review and the truth be told I am kinda liking this story an want to see if my instincts about it are right. I am going to wait a few days for a few reviews to post Chapter 2. If I get enough pleas to update I might sooner so..REVIEW!_  
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	2. Chapter 2

Chapter Two

Sam sat down next to Danny at their usual table at the cafeteria and took his hand. He looked back to normal, except the brightness his blue eyes had dimmed. He looked tired.

"Are you feeling all right?" Sam asked. Danny only nodded his head. "You don't want to talk about it?" Danny shook his head. Sam sighed. "Danny!" He looked at her for a moment then smiled gently and squeezed her hand.

"It's all right Sam," he said. "I'm just tired and on edge…I guess. Dash had a few nasty things to say and I snapped. He unknowingly pushed all the right buttons that's all. I'm fine now. Really."

Sam opened her mouth to say something else, but Tucker had returned to the table and Valerie was with him.

"I heard you went funky on Dash Baxter's butt!" Valerie said in awe. Sam winced and Tucker smiled.

"It was nothing really," Danny said. He was ready to put the incident behind him. But it seemed that the school klutz suddenly turning the table on the school bully was big news. People were talking.

Paulina sauntered up to the group. She stood there smiling for a moment than said. "I hear you suddenly grew a spine and fought back against Dash," she said.

"Beat it Paulina," Sam growled. Paulina ignored her and leaned on the table between Danny and Sam.

"I think it's kinda cute," she said as she reached over and traced the line of Danny's ear with her finger. "I'd be willing to ditch my date to the dance if you want to me too." She fluttered her eyes.

Danny caught Paulina's hand. He smiled for a moment then dropped it. "No thanks Paulina. I'm going to the dance with Sam."

Paulina's expression grew ugly. "Why would you want to go to the dance with her when you could go with someone fabulous like me?"

"I don't know," Danny said as he pushed her away from the table. "Maybe I'm just not good enough for you." He looked at Sam who was smirking.

"That means get lost Loser," Sam said as she turned to Paulina.

"Loser?" Paulina said. "Loser! I'm not the loser. I am rich, popular and everyone loves and wants to be me."

"Keep telling yourself that Paulina and maybe it will come true one day," Sam said as Paulina flipped her hair in Danny's face and walked away.

Valerie rolled her eyes. "I can't believe I was ever friends with that moron." She looked down at her food then said. "Danny?" He looked at her quizzically. "Can you forgive me?" she asked. "For chasing you. For wanting to destroy you. For harassing you and being a pawn of Vlad's?" Danny said nothing. He only looked at Valerie. Sam watched the green ebb and flow on the edge of his blue eyes. He was fighting for control of something.

Sam shivered as Valerie continued to talk. "I mean I thought my father losing his job and me my popularity was the worst thing that could happen to me. But all of it was the best thing. I'm happier now. I can be me and hell yeah I can kick some serious ghost butt." Tucker laughed and Valerie smiled.

"Yeah," Danny said stiltedly. "I understand. No hard feelings." The relief washed on Valerie's face. She didn't know the group well enough to tell they were all at ill at ease. That something was wrong. Tucker laughed and played off the tension growing at the table.

"I need to talk to Danny for a minute," Sam said then pulled Danny out of the cafeteria with her.

"Something's wrong," She said as she turned on him in the hall. "Don't deny it something's defiantly going on here. Spill it."

Danny closed his eyes tiredly. "Nothing is going on," he said. "I'm just tired and today isn't turning out to be such a great day. I failed my vocab test this morning. Am getting a D in geography, but the good news is I have a B in science. I'm worried about Vlad and Dark Dan escaping. Dash Baxter had some pretty nasty things to say about my girl friend and one of my worst enemies is sitting at my table and I'm supposed to just forgive and forget like that."

Sam shrugged, "Yeah, but you know she was just being used, by Vlad She's a victim of circumstance. I think she's really sincere about her change of heart."

"I guess," Danny said as he looked down the hall. He felt really tired. Like he'd been fighting all day and all night. He smiled a little at Sam. She looked very worried. "I'm fine," he said as he put his hand on her shoulder.

Sam leaned forward and put her arms around him. "If you want I could go find Jazz and…"

"No!" he said forcefully. "I don't need any amateur psychoanalyzation right now. I'm just tired. I want to get to Clockwork and make sure Dark Dan is contained. I could careless about Vlad at this point. I'd flush the thermos down the toilet if I could."

"A lot of good that would do," Sam said as she laughed. She hugged him tight, trying not to be disturbed that he wasn't returning the embrace. She pulled back and smiled shakily at him. He managed a slight smile in return.

Danny didn't go back to school after they all parted from lunch. Tucker and Sam would realize he was gone as soon as they reached history class, but at the moment he didn't care. He went ghost and flew away as fast as he could. He end up at Sam's house. There was no one home to disturb him so he climbed into her bed and pulled the covers over his head, but instead of sleeping he lay there, thinking.

He closed his eyes He'd been through these feelings before. The night he fought Vlad and thought he'd lost Sam.

He was a danger to his friends, his family and the world. If something happened and he let go of his human side and the cold unemotional phantom took over, nothing would matter anymore. All he'd been fighting against since his accident would be for nothing. But, it would be so easy to escape these emotions flooding him, the fear, anger, the uncertainty. He should leave. He was supposed to be strong. He was supposed to be a hero, that's what was expected of him. He couldn't let Sam and Tucker down. And now even more people believed in him.

Maybe he was destined to become Dark Dan. The fact that timeline could end with the same horrible conclusion haunted him along with the emotional detachment he was fighting.

He thought the problem was Vlad, but it wasn't. The problem was Danny himself and the danger which lurked just under the surface, like a volcano about to erupt. The part of him that wanted to escape from his ghost half, or was the ghost half wanting to escape from his human half?

Danny's thoughts turned again to Sam. She again was hurt by his distance. He wanted to reach out to her, but he couldn't. He was afraid that he'd lose control of his emotions. Lately he just feel like he was going to snap. Danny wished he knew how to stop it. He'd been able to fight it off before. But now, as he realized that his worst enemy was himself, he wasn't sure what to do. He needed to talk to Clockwork he decided…and then he fell asleep.

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"Where's Danny?" Sam mouthed to Tucker as he walked into class and took his seat."

"I thought he'd be with you!" Tucker whispered. Sam felt a sick knot growing in her stomach. She closed her eyes and took several deep breaths. She needed to find Danny now. She stood and ran from the room she went to the only other person who could help. Jazz.

Jazz was just about to start her experiment with her lab partner when Sam rushed into the room. "Sorry," she said to everyone looking at her. "Family emergency."

"What's going on?" Jazz said in alarm as she let Sam drag her into the hall. "Did they escape?" she asked, her hand going to her throat.

"No," Sam said breathlessly. "Danny's gone." She explained the events of the day so far and his strange behavior.

"So you think Danny's gone rogue on us?" Jazz asked her turquoise eyes going wide, Sam idly wondered if her eyeballs would pop out of the sockets if she opened them any wider.

Sam shrugged her shoulders. "He said he was tired…"

"Well," Jazz said thoughtfully. "Where would you go if you were tired?"

"To bed," Sam answered then closed her eyes. "I think I know where he might be! I'll talk to you later."

"Sam," Jazz called as Sam zoomed down the hall away from her. "Don't you have class?"

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Sam ran home as fast as she could. There were a few times that she'd been envious of Danny's ability to fly, and none more so than now. She nearly was run over once as she zipped across the street and one time she fell, skinning her knee. She was breathless by the time she reached her house, but she kept running, right up the stairs and to her room.

Sam stopped and stood as her eyes searched. She couldn't catch her breath. She leaned against the wall for a moment then looked at her bed. There was Danny, or rather Phantom, sound asleep. She wasn't sure which bothered her more. The fact that he was still in ghost form or that he had chosen to come to her house for a rest. She crept over to the bed and put her hand on the side of his face and called his name.

"Let me sleep Sam," he mumbled as he placed his hand over hers.

"Okay Danny," she whispered as she sat on the bed beside him. "But before you do. Can you please change back to human form?"

"No," Danny said sleepily. "Too tired now." Without opening his eyes he pulled her over to him and kissed her softly. "Love you Sam. Go back to school. Don't worry. Everything fine."

"I'll stay here with you," Sam said. "I'm tired too."

"Should go back to school," Danny said softly his voice was fading out as he fell deeper into sleep. "Need you to take notes. C average to maintain."

"We can both look at Tucker's notes," Sam said as she lay down and cuddled up beside him. "I'm really tired too, and we're supposed to go to that dance tonight." Danny didn't answer. He'd already been pulled deep down into sleep.

Sam sighed and listened for his heartbeat, but of course he was in his ghost form. There was no heart beat. She closed her eyes and tried to relax, but she couldn't. All she knew was she wanted to be there when Danny woke up. Just to make sure he was still Danny. She felt bad for doubting him. Her last thought as she was pulled down into sleep was a worrisome one, The Phantom has no heart.

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Danny woke up to something vibrating at his side. He stirred and realized Sam was laying beside him, and that it was her cell phone ringing. He moved her over and retrieved it.

"Hello?" he answered groggily.

"Danny!" Tucker yelled. "It's Danny." He yelled over his shoulder. "Where is he?" Danny could hear his father yelling in the back ground. "Is he all right?" he could hear his mother saying. "Tell him he better get his butt home! So I can kick it!" Jack bellowed.

Danny took a deep breath. "Tell them I'm all right. Sam's with me. We're both okay. We were just not feeling well. We'll be home soon."

"The dance.." Tucker started to say.

"I'm really not in the mood for a dance," Danny said. "Don't worry about us. You go with Valerie. Have a good time. We'll see you tomorrow." He didn't wait for Tuck to say anything more. He simply hung up and shut off the phone, threw it on the night stand, pulled Sam into his arms and fell back to sleep.

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"Where are they?" Jack said as Tucker hung up the phone.

Tucker shrugged his shoulder and winced away from Mr. Fenton. "Err I don't know. He didn't say. All he said was they were tired and weren't going to the dance."

"I am going to find them!" Jack declared while holding one finger up in the air. "And when I do I am going to string them up to the nearest tree and…."

"Honey," Maddie said. "Let them be. They've been under a lot of stress. I wanted them to go to the dance so they would relax. Relaxation is the key here."

"But..But..But," Jack said.

"No but. It's fine. Now go in the basement and get back to work." Maddie ordered as she pointed to the door.

"Err," Tucker said as he looked longingly at the door. "I um…need to go home and get ready for the dance now. I'll be back tomorrow." With that he ran out the door and didn't look back for fear that Jack would be chasing him.

Tucker was looking forward to the dance. He was going with Valerie, his long time crush. He was disappointed that Danny and Sam wouldn't be there, but he was fine with that. More time for he and Valerie to get to know each other and hopefully forge some kind of relationship. Plus, with Danny not at the dance, the likely hood of a ghost, one in particular, showing up was minimized greatly.

He showered quickly then changed into clothes he felt appropriate for a casual Friday night dance then squirted on a little aftershave. "Not too much Foley" he warned himself as he hummed.

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Tucker was not shy. He walked into the gym proudly with Valerie on his arm. Only a few heads turned. Valerie was between being happy to be at the dance with Tucker and worried that people would think they were dating.

"That wouldn't be such a bad thing would it?" Tucker asked as he spun Valerie out onto the dance floor.

"I didn't say it would be," Valerie laughed. "I'm just saying I don't want people thinking something that isn't true."

"But would you want it to be true?" Tucker probed. He'd personally love it if he could walk down the halls of Casper High knowing that his girl was none other than Valerie Gray. He couldn't do better than Paulina herself, but Valerie was not only drop dead gorgeous but she was smart and funny.

Tucker's PDA beeped and he reached for it and checked it out. It was time to get refreshment. Valerie gave him a funny look and said, "Look Tucker. I know you're a techno geek and all, but sometimes you just gotta put it aside." She smiled as she attempted to take the PDA out of his iron grip. "Let go!" she ordered as she wrested it away from him then smiled at the people walking by who looked at her in surprise. She took a look at the PDA then turned it off.

"You don't need a PDA at a dance," She said then lead him back out to the dance floor.

Tucker felt a little odd without his PDA but he was willing to go with it. After all he Tucker Foley had a girl to romance. If the PDA was going to get in the way then the PDA was going to go.

Tucker Foley had some great moves on the dance floor and Valerie Gray was pleasantly pleased. A crowd drew around them and before they knew it Dash was there. Dash was of course upset. Not only had Danny Fenton eluded a beating today, he had actually humiliated Dash. Fentonio was supposed to be at the dance with the Goth girl and they were no where in site. Dash was feeling very thwarted and very bitter.

"Yo Techno Geek!" Dash bellowed. "Stepping out without your shadows eh? Must be feeling a little out of place. Is that why you're attached to Valerie like a tick?"

"Ignore him," Valerie said as Tucker's gaze shifted over to Dash. "He's not worth our time."

Tucker wasn't worried about Dash. Firstly Dash rarely picked on him and secondly he wasn't above standing up for himself. He defiantly wanted to show Valerie that he could hold his own with anyone. He certainly didn't want her to try and fight his fight for him. He figured she was that kind of girl.

"Don't worry," Tucker said to Valerie. "I'm ignoring him. I'm a lover not a fighter."

Valerie laughed. "I know. I've heard you say that before."

Tucker gave her a shocked look and blushed. "You have?" he asked. Valerie nodded her head and Tucker's blush deepened.

"It's kinda why I like you Foley." Valerie said. "It shows you've got confidence."

"Oh yeah," Tucker said adopting a rather pseudo suave expression. "Tucker Foley has confidence." Then he turned around and tripped right over Dash Baxter's foot.

"Watch where you're going Techno Geek." Dash said then moved forward to step on Tuck's hand, but Tuck was fast and was able to get out of the way.

"Watch it yourself!" Valerie said as she pushed Dash. "If you don't I'm gonna personally kick your tail!"

Dash laughed. "Yeah Foley you're little girlfriend is going to kick my butt for you."

"She's not my girl friend," Tucker said just as Valerie growled, "He's not my boyfriend." They looked at each other in shock.

"Gross you two sound like Sam and Danny," Dash remarked as he walked away. "Lovebirds! That's really gross."

Tucker stood and dusted himself off and Valerie looked in the other direction. "Imagine the audacity of that jerk," Tucker said. "Trying to say we're like Danny and Sam."

"I know!" Valerie said in outrage. "He called us lovebirds!" She stole a small glace at Tucker and blushed. Tucker was too busy trying to hide his own blush to notice.

"Come on." Valerie said as she grabbed Tucker's hand. "Lets burn up the dance floor."

Tucker was just about to open his mouth to agree when someone screamed and the gym began to empty. "Ghost!" they heard. Tucker turned and saw none other than Princess floating toward him.

"I want to go to the ball!" the princess cried as she reached out a hand toward Tucker.

"Oh geeze!" He said as he took a few steps back. Valerie took a defensive stance and was glad she had the forethought to be packing a small plasmic weapon in her dress.

"All right ghost!" she said to the princess. "Step away from my man and you won't get hurt…" She paused and looked at Tucker. "Not that you're my man or anything okay?"

Tucker grabbed Valerie's arm as she was about to shoot the princess. "Wait!" he said. "You don't know who this is. She's harmless. Don't hurt her."

"You like her!" Valerie accused. "You really like her and oh yuck she's a Ghost Tucker!"

"I don't like her!" Tucker denied. "It's just that Danny, Sam and I we kinda owe her. She saved Sam's life and.."

"I see," Valerie said coldly. "Then I'll just leave you here to dance with this ghost and…"

"No wait!" Tucker said in desperation as he grabbed Valerie's hand. "You don't understand. I can't hurt her! But she's driving me crazy! She won't leave me alone!"

The look of anger faded from Valerie's face as she surveyed Tucker's expression of desperation. "All right Foley," She said then turned to Princess who was tugging on Tucker's sleeve.

Valerie stepped between Tucker and the princess. "Listen up girly," She said. "Tucker here is my date for the dance. Not yours."

The princess began to look angry and whined. "But I want to go to the ball and dance with the prince."

"The prince is mine tonight!" Valerie said then pointed to the door. "Go find some other victim to dance with!" The princess looked at Tucker for a moment then began crying as she ran away.

"I feel so bad," Tucker said as he watched her go. "You know the ladies love the Tuckster…"

Valerie laughed. "You're so cute when you're trying to be smooth!" She grabbed his arm and pulled him back on to the dance floor.

Tucker was very relieved that no one bothered them for the rest of the night. He and Valerie made plans to spend the next day together. He hoped Danny and Sam wouldn't mind if he ditched them.

Valerie's father drove Tucker home. When it was time to say good night, Tucker wondered if he should pull a smooth little move and kiss Valerie good night. He moved to try and she looked at him with narrowed eyes. "Don't even think about it Foley!" she growled.

"Hey can't blame me for trying to kiss a pretty girl!" He said as he unpuckered his lips.

Valerie laughed. "Yeah but I'm a pretty girl who can kick your butt so just watch yourself!" With that Tucker went inside and went to bed. Reflecting on what a wonderful time he had with Valerie…and looking forward to seeing if they had any future together.

_**XxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxX**_

**Here I say that I'm not going to update and what do I do? I update. I hope I wrote Tucker ok. It's kinda shallow I know. But well. I'm just not feeling Tucker. I like Tuck and Val. I'm just not feeling it. Now that I've got that out of the way, the rest of the story is going to progress quite well. I'm not going to publish another chapter until I have the one I'm working on at present written. So review review review and I might become inspired to give you another chapter….**


	3. Chapter 3

**There is a slight fluffage alert applicable to this chapter. I hope it's not found to be too riske. I did a great deal of thought and modification of the certain fluffy parts. I simply couldn't exclude them or change the situation. Two people who care about each other are going to express it in certain ways, it wouldn't be realistic for them not to. Skip the fluff if you want…it is less fluffier after the XxXxX separation.**

Chapter Three

Sam woke up slowly and feeling remarkably refreshed. She cuddled into the warm arms around her and listened for a moment to the steady heartbeat beneath her ear. Sam sighed contentedly and opened her eyes to…darkness. She sat up in confusion then turned and looked at her alarm clock. The bright red numbers told her it was 9:53.

"Danny," She said only slightly alarmed. So they missed the dance. Big deal. What worried her is that Danny's parents were probably freaking out at this moment. She shook him and he groaned.

"Too tired," He said.

"We've been sleeping for 8 hours!" Sam said as she pinched at him. She was so relieved to wake up and find him back in human form. She'd thought that the threat of the Phantom shedding his human half was gone, but from what she'd seen today, she feared the reverse was true, they had more to worry about than ever.

"What time is it?" Danny said groggily.

"9:56," answered Sam. Danny didn't act surprised. "Everyone is probably worried ."

"I talked to Tucker," Danny told her lazily as he pulled her back down beside him and tucked her head under his chin.

"When?" Sam asked feeling amused at Danny cuddling her.

"I don't know," Danny answered. "He called on your cell phone."

"My cell?" Sam asked in alarm then pulled away and went searching for it in her pocket.

"It's over there," Danny said as he gestured to the night stand. "I turned it off. We were both too tired to be disturbed."

"You're going to be so grounded," Sam warned.

"At this point I so don't care," Danny told her then pulled her close and held her. Sam pulled away and looked at Danny for a moment. She could vaguely make out his blue eyes in the darkness. She relaxed and he looked back at her questioningly.

"Nothing is wrong," She told him as she stroked the side of his face. "I was just making sure."

"Making sure I am me?" Danny asked. Sam smiled sheepishly and he pulled her back down and kissed her.

"We really need to be getting back to your house," Sam said. "I don't want your parents to start forbidding us to see each other or anything.

"I'm sorry Sam," he said feeling bad for wanting to from hide his fears by drowning himself in her. He still wanted to. He still wanted to hold her and kiss her and forget everything else. She sat up and leaned against him. Danny leaned back.

"Your dad is probably going to kill one of us!" She replied as she rubbed his shoulders.

"Me," Danny said softly. "I'm the responsible party here. I'm the one who ran away from school making you worry. I'm the one who had an opportunity to wake you and didn't. I'm the one who hung up on Tucker."

Sam laughed, "You hung up on Tucker?" Danny nodded and Sam smiled and kissed his neck. He shivered and she smiled. She stood and stretched. Then turned on the light. Both she and Danny blinked for awhile, trying to adjust to the brightness. "I'm just going to gather a few more things together," she said. "And if you don't mind I'm going to take a shower. Showering at your house is….dangerous."

"What?" Danny said in mock offense. "You don't like the Fenton High Power Shower?"

"I like my skin on my body," Sam said as she walked into the bathroom.

"So do I," Danny called teasingly. Sam looked over her shoulder and smiled.

Danny walked around Sam's room. He did feel better. He actually didn't want to go into how he was feeling at the moment, but his thoughts of Sam in the shower just on the other side of the wall convinced him that he was really was human after all. He smiled wryly. Sam was hard to resist. He smiled rather goofily then picked up the phone to call home.

**XxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxX**

"It's 11:30!" Jazz screamed as Danny, Sam, Jack and Maddie sat at the kitchen table. "What exactly were you thinking?"

"That I was tired," Danny answered. "I just needed to rest." He looked at Sam who nodded.

"We fell asleep." Sam said. She was feeling pretty awake now though. She actually felt more alert and together since she had made several resolutions in the shower. The first being that she and Danny needed a little distance in their relationship and the other that she'd do what she could to keep the pressure off of him. He seemed so tormented by the darker aspects of himself. She smiled, the darker aspects weren't always all bad.

Jack opened his mouth to say something, but Maddie put her hand on his shoulder, which was a subtle signal to be quiet, that for the sake of his health he'd learned to listen to. He sighed and Maddie smiled.

"Next time," Maddie began. "Let us know where you are Sweetie. We were extremely worried about you. Besides, weren't you supposed to go to a dance? Didn't you stand up Tucker?"

"Trust me Mom," Danny said. "Tucker was glad that we weren't at the dance."

"So what are we going to do with Vlad and the others" Jazz asked as she changed the subject. "I vote for shooting them off into space."

Jack's eyes lit up. "Hey that's not a bad idea Jazz!" he said excitedly. "We could…"

"No!" Danny said. "I don't think that's an option." Maddie placed a salad in front of Sam and then a greenish looking…thing in front of Danny. She instructed both of them to eat. Danny looked longingly at Sam's normal looking salad.

"Mom," he said. "I think I'm going to become a vegetarian." Everyone laughed but Sam, who became excited and began talking about how cool and earth conscious vegetarianism is.

"Okay," Jazz interrupted her. "Not to burst your bubble Sam, but Danny is a carnivore. He couldn't go without some sort of meat without going insane." Danny shrugged and Sam sighed.

"So what about the thermoses?" Danny asked. "I'd like to go through the portal and see if I can find Clockwork. I'm sure he has some clue as to what needs to be done."

With that, everyone headed down to the basement. Danny changed to his ghost form then stood in front of the portal. He looked at Sam a moment. "I won't be gone long," he promised.

"Oh pulleeezze," Jazz said. "Just kiss her and get it over with." Sam blushed and Maddie and Jack looked away. Jack whistling as he looked up at the ceiling and rocked on his heels with his hand behind his back and Maddie was humming pretending to clean off one of the work stations with a cloth.

"Blech," Sam said her eyes sparkling with humor. "I don't want to kiss a ghost. Yuck." Danny advanced on her with a very predatory look in his green glowing eyes. He grabbed her and kissed her cheek. She giggled and kissed his cheek back. Danny winked at Sam and she winked back.

"Oh give me a break!" Jazz said in exasperation. "You two are pathetic." Danny and Sam laughed then Danny turned and flew through the portal, leaving Sam standing there feeling bereft and at a loss as what to do next.

Jazz grabbed her arm. "Come with me," she said. "We need to talk."

**XxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxX**

Danny flew through the Ghost Zone, unsure how to find Clockwork. Was he even in the Ghost Zone. He said he existed outside of time. He had to be watching. He had to know Danny was looking for him. Danny caught a glimps of light from the corner of his eye. He turned to see a large corridor. He hesitated for a moment then went through.

Clockwork stood waiting for Danny. He smiled slightly as the ghost boy came rushing through the portal. "I need your help." Danny said breathlessly as he came to a stop in front of the entity.

Clockwork motioned for Danny to follow. "You are worried about your darker side," he said. "You think because it overcame you once, that it will overcome you again. But you must remember young Danny that it didn't overcome you without help. Plasmius had a hand in Dark Dan's creation. He is a part of that entity as well."

"Yes, but doesn't everything lead to that final outcome?" Danny asked. "Me wanting to be rid of the Phantom of it's darker side of me and seeking to separate from it which…"

"No no!" Clockwork laughed. "Your fears are quite without foundation. How can you be forgetting so much? The Phantom in you isn't evil! It is what you mold it to be. It is good or bad or happy or sad, amplified. If you chose to be evil. It will be evil times ten. If you chose to be filled with goodness, so it shall be goodness times ten. But I must caution you that humans have many facets to their personality. No one is entirely one thing or another, even Vlad himself. Even he has traces of goodness in his make up."

"But I have felt such anger…" Danny started.

"And you think humans do not feel anger? Do you think anger is wrong? Do you think it is not justified to feel the rush of rage when justice has been abused or a loved one wronged?" Clockwork turned to Danny and shook his head. "It isn't anger you need to overcome, but fear."

"Fear?" Danny asked.

"The great disabler," Clockwork answered. "Fear can make you doubt your choices and yourself. Fear can cause you to stumble and lose your footing. Fear causes pain. Anger is the result of pain. Anger caused by fear is most unreasonable."

Danny thought for a moment then smiled slightly. He felt much better now. It was his choice alone whether or not he was good or evil, it wasn't something which would simply overcome him without warning. That the darker feelings he'd been having were just that, darker feelings, amplified. He understood now better than before. Vlad and even Dash could harass him all they wished, but as long as he desired it to be so, he would stay Danny Fenton, good guy...okay mostly good guy.

**XxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxX**

Jazz closed the door to her room behind herself then turned to Sam. "Okay time to spill the beans," she said. "What's going on?"

Sam sat on her sleeping bag on the floor and took a deep breath. What did Jazz want her to spill the beans about? About her relationship with Danny? About what she herself was going through? About what Danny was going through? Well it wasn't like Danny had talked to Sam about his feelings and fears, but she knew him well enough to know what was bothering him the most.

"What do you mean? With Danny and I?" Sam asked.

Jazz flopped down on her bed and looked at Sam for a moment. "I mean everything," Jazz clarified. "Starting with you. How are you doing? Nightmares?"

"I'm actually feeling better than I was," Sam answered warily. She knew she could trust Jazz, but Jazz could be bossy and annoying, plus she wouldn't with hold information if she deemed it important to spill it. Sam weighed her options. Who else did she have to talk to about things like her relationship with Danny? Okay other than Tucker?

"What happened this afternoon?" Jazz asked as she half leaned forward on the bed. "I mean you came to me frantically looking for Danny. Apparently you found him but…ummm then what?" she trailed off and looked at Sam meaningfully.

Sam's eyes widened. What did Jazz think happened? Sam felt heat rush across her face. "I found him asleep," Sam answered. "He'd had a really bad day. He got into a bad fight with Dash."

"Yeah I heard about that," Jazz said. "He must have really snapped."

Sam shook her head and continued. "He says he flunked a Vocabulary test and is getting a D in Geography…"

"And his two worst enemies are downstairs in the lab under the watchful eye of our crazy parents," Jazz finished. Sam took a deep breath and nodded. "So you found him and consoled him," Jazz said then smiled knowingly.

Sam covered her face with one hand. "No." She answered. "Well yes but…I found him asleep."

"And you woke him up?" Jazz prodded.

"Not really," Sam answered. "He told me he was tired. I was tired too. So I fell asleep. Next thing I know I was waking up at it was night. We slept for 8 hours."

"We were pretty worried," Jazz said coolly as she sat and reached for a jar of fingernail polish from her nightstand drawer. "Is that all that happened?"

"Yes," Sam said as she watched Jazz starting to paint her toenails pink. "We woke up. I took a shower and came here. Why are you giving me the third degree?"

Jazz gave Sam an exasperated look. "I'm not giving you the third degree. I'm just trying to figure out what's going on in your head, and Danny's."

"I don't know what's going on in Danny's head," Sam said feeling exasperated herself. "He's not really talking to me about stuff like that."

"But he should be!" Jazz said in annoyance as she jabbed the fingernail brush in the bottle. "Why does he insist on keeping everything in?" She sighed heavily.

Sam shrugged and smiled slightly because she understood something Jazz didn't. "He's a boy," Sam told her. "They don't like to talk about their feelings much."

"What about you?" Jazz asked. "I mean you're not a boy. So lets talk about your feelings." Sam sighed and remembered something Danny said about amateur psychoanalysis. She considered for a moment, telling Jazz to bug off, but the pain lingering in her heart stopped her. She'd been trying to ignore it, to push it inside, but now that an outlet for expression had presented itself, the pain bubbled to the surface, demanding to be acknowledged.

Sam looked away from Jazz hoping that Danny's sister didn't see the tears rising in her eyes. The truth was she was scared. Who wouldn't be? But what exactly was she scared of?

"I'm scared I'm going to lose him." Sam admitted softly as she looked down at her hands.

"I don't think you have to worry about that," Jazz said her eyes flashing at amusement at the fact that Sam was insecure. "Danny loves you. He has for a very long time. He…"

"That's not what I mean," Sam interrupted. She sighed and looked up at Jazz. "I mean I might lose him to himself, to his ghost half." She told Jazz about the incident with Dash and what he was like talking to Valerie. She told her that when she found him asleep he hadn't even changed back to human form.

"I think I'm going to lose him. If not to Vlad or his future evil self, then to his present self." Sam finished what she was saying and looked up at Jazz. She expected the older girl to be staring at her, but instead Jazz was laying on her back looking up at the ceiling, wiggling her toes in the air.

"So," Sam continued. "I've decided the best thing is to distance myself from him. He's doing the same I can tell. That way it won't hurt so bad. You know?"

Jazz finally rolled over and looked at Sam. "You're stupid. Both of you!"

"Stupid?" Sam asked incredulously. "How is protecting myself being stupid?

"Because you're just willing to give him up without a fight! Just going to walk away like a scared little girl." Jazz shook her head disbelievingly.

Sam smiled wryly. "I kinda am a scared little girl Jazz."

Jazz sighed. "Lau Tzu said, 'Being deeply loved by someone gives you strength, while loving someone deeply gives you courage.' I'd think that if you truly loved Danny that you would find that courage inside you."

"Who is Lau Tzu," Sam asked as she tried to change the subject.

"He's the founder of Taoism," Jazz answered. "And don't try to change the subject on me."

"I think Danny needs your love Sam. I know he has Mom, Dad and me. He even has Tucker. But you are there for him in a way none of us can be. He trusts you deeper than anyone. I've known that for a long time." Jazz looked uncomfortable for a moment then a mischievous grin spread across her face.

Jazz surveyed her freshly painted toenails as she considered spilling what she knew about the feelings Danny carried for Sam and a few particulars she knew about. "Well…anyway," She continued deciding that she couldn't spill all the personal effects of Danny's heart out without a great deal of guilt. "Don't abandon him Sam. Not now when he needs you."

Sam stood and walked over to the window. "So I have little choice. I either distance myself and hurt him, which means losing him. Or I commit myself whole heartedly and risk losing him and myself. I don't like either option."

"The things which take the most courage and involve the most risk are the things most worth risking your life for." Jazz told her.

"Who said that?" Sam asked.

"I did." Jazz answered.

"Okay," Sam said. "I won't give up, but if something bad happens. I'm blaming you." Jazz frowned and looked worriedly at her pink toes.

**XxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxX**

Down in the basement. beneath the light of the containment shield, one of the thermoses began to shake and rattle. The lid of the container moved a fraction of an inch, then a fraction of an inch more. The thermos rocked and rocked and finally fell to the floor and opened. Laughter filled the room then the portal opened. One thermos was left standing on the table, the sound of the empty fallen container echoed in the silence of the lab. The silence didn't last long as a screaming alarm went off alerting the Fenton household that their security had been breeched.

**XxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxX**

**It was my worry about certain aspects that detained this chapter from being posted. Now that we are over that hill….expect quicker updates! **


	4. Chapter 4

**This chapter is dedicated to the wonderful Pottersparky. Thanks for digging me out of the hole I was in as always you ROCK!**

** This is my favorite chapter (so far) I hope you like it as much as I do. PLEASE review and let me know.  
**

Chapter Four

Jack stood in the center of the lab staring down at the empty thermos laying on the floor. He looked fearfully toward the ghost portal then turned to Maddie.

"Which one was it?" She asked. "Who escaped?"

Jack closed his eyes and gestured for her to look for herself. Maddie growled in exasperation and walked to the table. She let out a deep sigh. "Well what are we going to do now?" she asked as she turned off the alarm.

Jazz and Sam came skidding down the stairs. They both looked at the empty thermos and then at the portal. "It's him isn't it?" Sam asked shakily trying not to sound hysterical. "He got away didn't he?" Jack and Maddie looked at each other then jumped and began to work on the shield to keep both ghost and human out.

Jazz bent down and picked up the thermos. It was very badly beaten. It was obvious he'd been working for a long time to escape. The thermos had held up well, all things considered.

"I hope Danny's okay," Jazz said then looked at Sam. She expected that the girl would be crying, but then she didn't know Sam very well. Sam only looked angry.

"We need to get that shield operational!" Maddie cried. "Hurry Jack."

Jack was digging in his tool box. "He just cut through my containment field like it was nothing!"

"Then we need to change the resonance," Maddie said.

"To what?" Jack laughed. "I couldn't get it to phase any higher without…Wait! I think I got it!"

Sam and Jazz sat in the corner of the lab as they watch Jack and Maddie work. "I wish someone could warn Danny." Sam said wistfully.

"Me too." Jazz agreed as she rested her head on her knees. Sam watched and Maddie work for a moment then her gaze lit on the Specter Speeder. She cast a sideways glance at Jazz then stood. "I'm going to call and leave a message on Tucker's cell." She said as she dug her phone out of her pocket and walked upstairs.

"Tuck," She whispered into the phone. "Danny went to the Ghost Zone to see if he could find Clockwork. While he was gone….Dark Dan escaped. Tuck. We're all in danger. You and Val need to get over to Danny's house as soon as you wake up. As for me, I've got to go warn Danny. Tell everyone not to worry about me. I just hope I can find him before…He does."

Sam took a deep breath. The next problem she had to deal with was the genetic lock on the Specter Speeder. She ran upstairs and grabbed Jazz's hair brush. She pulled out the hair from the brush and wrapped it around her thumb and hoped her idea would work.

Sam almost cried out with triumph as she started the Specter Speeder. She eased the seat belt over her then took a deep breath and gunned it through the portal. She didn't look back to see if Jack, Maddie or Jazz had anything to say about her escape. All Sam was focused on was finding Danny before...He did.

"I'm not going to give him a name," she whispered to no one. "He doesn't deserve it!"

Sam sped through the Ghost Zone as fast as she could. Her focus was finding Danny. She only hoped that focusing on him mentally would send her to him. She had no idea how to get around in The Zone. She stopped and looked around. Then something appeared in front of her. No it wasn't something. It was someone. A grinning skull with green flame hair.

"Hello there!" he said as he leveled one of his many weapons at her. "You look very familiar."

**XxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxX**

"But," Danny said. "What about Dark Dan? He still exists. If I had changed the timeline, wouldn't he vanish? Doesn't his very existence mean I am destined to turn into him?"

"Ah," Clockwork laughed. "You are not a scholar yet. You know little about Quantum Physics and alternate realities. You are now living your life in an alternate timeline. His existence does not predestinate you turning into him anymore than it does me."

Clockwork walked to mirror and looked through it. "Now young Danny," Clockwork said. "I would worry less about your teenaged angst and a little more about your friends and family. Samantha has entered the Ghost Zone in search of you and is now under the care of Skulker. Alternately, a foe now seeks you."

"Skulker has Sam!" Danny exclaimed and then paused. He had a horrible sinking feeling. "Foe?" he asked.

"Yes," Clockwork answered calmly. "The one you fear the most. And he seeks you as we speak. It would be better to leave your friend to Skulker's devices than to risk capture by your foe."

"How do I defeat him?" Danny asked in despair.

"Send him back to his own timeline of course," Clockwork advised. "He cannot reach you there. He exists independently of you."

Danny sighed in frustration. "How do you suggest I do that?" he asked.

Clockwork handed him an amulet. "All you need to do is get this around his neck and call on me. I will do the rest."

"Oh great," Danny said. "Send the mouse out to put a bell on the cat. Great!"

"I can send you back to your own world," Clockwork suggested. "It may give you an advantage since your nemesis seeks you in the Ghost Zone."

_**XxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxX**_

Danny appeared upstairs in the kitchen. He took a deep breath and ran downstairs. Everyone screamed when appeared and he jumped back.

"A little on edge are we?" he asked.

"What are you doing?" Maddie asked. "How did you get upstairs?"

"It's a long story," Danny answered. He turned to his Dad. "I need the Fenton Phones."

"Why?" Jack asked suspiciously as he raised one eyebrow. "How do we know you're really Danny?"

"Aww come on Dad!" Danny whined. "We don't have time for this. Just hand over the Fenton Phones."

"Oh all right," Jack grumbled as he dug through a drawer and produced the device for Danny. Danny grabbed them and turned them on. He stuffed them in his ears.

"Sam?" he called. "Are you there? Come on Sam answer me! Sammy!"

"Don't call me Sammy," came her fuzzed by static reply. Danny relaxed a little.

"Where are you?" He asked trying to remain as calm as possible.

"Uh, well," Sam answered. "I don't think I can really answer that. Uh hold on a sec."

"Sam!" Danny called frantically as the connection went dead.

"I said hold on!" came Sam's annoyed reply.

"I'm coming after you!" Danny said as he ran through the portal without a backward glance.

"Yeah you do that. You know right where I am," Sam said sarcastically.

"Why did you go into the Ghost Zone in the first place?" Danny asked in annoyance.

"Because Dark Dan is on the loose. I had to warn you!" She answered. "By he way. Guess who got loose and is after you?

"Uh. Dark Dan?" Danny asked.

"Wow," Sam said in a mock amazed tone. "You're like psychic or something aren't you?"

"Well," Danny said trying not to laugh. "I could be."

"Um….Hold on again," Sam told him casually.

Danny waited a second. "What are you doing?" he finally asked.

"I'm fighting Skulker," she answered calmly. Danny knew better than to not be completely alarmed. He could tell by the even tone in Sam's voice that things were not going well. She was trying not to alarm him, to play off that she had things under control.

"I'm headed to Skulker's lair. I should be there any moment," He told her.

"Well Danny my Darling," She said then suppressed a giggle. "I suggest you speed up just a little bit. I don't think I can hold on a much longer."

"I'm there My Precious," he said in a cutesy voice. "I see you. Wave to the camera!"

"Ha ha you're cute," Sam said sarcastically.

"Yeah I'm cute now," Danny laughed as he zoomed down toward Skulker who had given up on Sam in the Specter Speeder and was flying toward Danny. "But things are about to get real ugly."

"I'm going to make you a deal," Danny called to Skulker. "You leave us alone and let me get her out of here and I'll spare you."

"You think I fear you whelp?" Skulker asked.

"No," Danny said honestly. "But you will. Just trust me on this. You don't want to fight me right now. There are more important things going on. Things that are vital to your continued existence."

"Explain yourself whelp," Skulker said as he fired a few rounds of his weapon at Danny who dodged effortlessly.

"We have a…mutual enemy," Danny started. "He's on the loose and gunning for me. If he finds me here, he'll destroy you with no qualms. It would behoove you to get out of here now!"

"Behoove?" Sam asked as she laughed. "Didn't you say you flunked your vocabulary test today?"

"I will give you the benefit of the doubt!" Skulker proclaimed. "But should you ever be at my mercy again. I shall have you!" He looked at Sam a moment then disappeared. Danny didn't waste any time getting to Sam and she didn't waste any time opening the Specter Speeder to let him in.

He grabbed her in a hug and said, "You're really stupid you know that?"

"And here I thought I was being courageous," She laughed. Danny kissed her quickly and she blushed. "What did Clockwork have to say?"

"He said he could help me stop Dark Dan." Danny answered. "Lets get you home."

"Oh so you know how to get out of here?" Sam asked.

"Yeah," Danny answered. "Now answer me this. How do you know Dark Dan is after me?"

"Well you see he left this note…" Sam started then rolled her eyes at Danny's irritated look. "Okay I don't know. But it's only logical that he would be. All things considered."

"So you went to find me?" Danny asked. "What if he had found you before I did?"

"Well I would have sweet talked him into letting me go." Sam said as she fluttered her eyes at Danny.

"Oh yeah like you sweet talked Skulker into letting you go." Danny started feeling angry. Sam was way too flippant about what was going on. He knew she was playing off her fear, but he needed her to be serious for a moment.

"I'm free aren't I?" asked Sam softly. Danny stopped the Speeder for a second.

"Really Sam," he said. "I appreciate your courage but…" Sam put her hand on Danny's mouth and he was quiet.

"You told me nothing has changed," She began. "I have done stuff like this multiple times in the past. I will continue to do so in the future. I'm not going to sit idly by and wring my hands waiting you to return from some dangerous situation Danny. It's not me. If you want that kinda thing in a girl, then by all means go get Paulina. But I'm not going to do it."

Danny took a deep breath. "Where do you get all your courage Sam?" he asked in resignation.

"To love someone deeply gives you courage." Sam answered.

"Being loved deeply by someone gives you strength," Danny said his eyes sparkling as he held Sam's gaze. "You've been talking to Lau Tzu haven't you?" Sam smirked and Danny started the Speeder moving again, toward home.

_**XxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxX**_

The lab was in complete disarray. It looked as though several tornados had stop through, then stood around for a family reunion.

"Oh crap!" Sam said as she jumped from the Specter Speeder. The canister holding Vlad, Spectra and Bertrand was gone. And it looked like everyone else was as well. Danny and Sam stood speechless as they surveyed the wreckage.

"Danny" he heard his mother call. "Is that you Sweetie?"

"Mom?" Danny yelled then attempted to run up the stairs. Something blocked him. A wall. A shield! He returned to his human form and tried to go up the stairs, but was blocked.

"Mom! Dad! Jazz!" Danny yelled. "It's me and Sam! Let us up!" He saw his father look down the stairs.

"It's them Maddie!" Jack boomed. "Let em up!" They heard some shuffling from upstairs and then Jack called. "Okay Danny. Come up now. Hurry cause the shield will rearm in 3.5 seconds." Danny grabbed Sam and they ran up the stairs together.

"Danny!" Maddie yelled. "Sweetie we were so scared for you!"

"Samantha Manson!" Jack boomed. "You stole my Specter Speeder!"

"Sorry about that Mr. Fenton," Sam said sheepishly. "I just had to make sure Danny was okay.

"Where's Jazz" Danny asked in alarm. Maddie and Jack looked at each other and…

"I'm safe Danny," Jazz called as she came from upstairs, her hair was wrapped in a towel. "I just needed to take a shower. Ecto hair isn't very fun."

Danny sat down at the table and composed himself. The last thing he should be doing was running up to Jazz and hugging her and expressing how glad he was that she was safe. He'd been imagining all kinds of terrible things.

"So," Sam said. She was tired of waiting to find out what happened so she figured she'd ask for herself. "Was Dark Dan here? What happened?"

"He came looking for Danny," Maddie answered. "We were sure he was going to destroy us, but instead he released Vlad."

"Vlad is stupid," Jazz said. "First he tried to talk to the guy. Dark Dan didn't seem the least bit interested in anything he had to say. When he didn't respond, Vlad attacked. Spectra and Bertrand disappeared through the portal and Vlad and Dark Dan fought "

"I must say it was quite pleasing watching someone knock the stuffing clean out of Vlad," Jack interrupted. "He didn't stand a chance."

"Mom and Dad got the shield operational and used it to isolate the lab," Jazz said. "He couldn't break the shield. He tried. He was going to capture us and use us as bait to get to you."

"Instead he took Vlad," Maddie said. "He said something about separating the "old man" from his ghost half then capturing you and separating you and creating another him."

"Oh great," Sam said.

"Not gonna happen," Danny vowed. He looked at Sam a moment. She was leaning against the table looking at him questioningly. He smiled at her and she tweaked his nose. He then told his family what Clockwork said. Well, not really he told them what Clockwork wanted him to do to defeat Dark Dan.

"How are you going to do that Sweetie?" Maddie asked. "I don't think you want to get within 50 feet of him, let alone close enough to put a…um…amulet around his neck.

"You could capture him in the thermos again," Jack suggested. "Throw the amulet on him as he's sucked in. Call your friend and have him dispatched."

"What if that doesn't work?" Maddie asked. "We need to have a back up plan. Isn't there a way we can destroy him? I'd hate to unleash him on any reality." She yawned Danny realized that he and Sam had the advantage of extra sleep. He felt alert, and slightly hungry, while it was past everyone's bed time.

"Go to bed," Danny suggested. "You'll wake up in the morning and an idea will come to you Mom."

"But what about you and Sam? And how can we sleep knowing that such a dastardly fellow is out there?" Maddie shook her head. "No Sweetie. I think we should stay up and figure this out."

"I don't know if I can sleep," Jazz said. "I'm too worried."

"But having you all tired and sleep deprived is not going to help," Danny insisted and he pushed his family toward the stairs to their rooms. "Sam and I will keep a watch on things. We'll wake you up if there are any changes."

"I am pretty tired," Jack said as he headed up the stairs. "Just 40 winks is all I need."

"Okay Sweetie," Maddie sighed. "But if there is even the slightest change…." She punched a few buttons and activated the new ghost shield over the entire house.

"Well let you know Mom." Danny promised.

_**XxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxX**_


	5. Chapter 5

**Enjoy this chapter. I'm not going to be updating until I have a little more written. Unfortunately, tis the season for being busy. Please do me the kindness of reviewing. Reviews inspire me to make the story better. I am sad when I get no reviews.**  


Chapter Five

Tucker stretched and yawned and smiled. He was happy! Yesterday had been a great day! He and Valerie had a great time at the dance, the princess showing up not withstanding. He was looking forward to the plans they made together for the day. He hoped Danny and Sam didn't mind if he skipped out on them.

He jumped in the shower. Ate breakfast and then reached for his cell phone to call Valerie. He paused as he noticed he had a new voice mail. A frisson of worry ran through him. Danny. Sam. Vlad. He shook a little as he hit the button to hear his voice mail. Two messages. The first one nearly made him drop the phone and run, but laugh all at once. It was just like Sam to take off in the Specter Speeder to try and save Danny. Tucker wondered how she did. He pressed the button on the next message. This one was from Danny.

"Yo Tucker!" Danny's voice called over the phone. "Just calling to let you know that Sam and I are safe and sound. On the bad side of things Dark Dan is loose. He has Vlad and is planning on separating him and me from our ghost halves and creating another him. Isn't that great? You and Valerie need to get over here ASAP. There is a special ghost shield over the house. Give me a call when you get here and we'll let you in. We need you Tuck. Don't fail us now." The phone dropped out of Tucker's numb fingers and he closed his eyes. He wondered why, when everything was so great, that things had to go so wrong. He snapped himself out of his shocked daze and retrieved the phone. He just hoped Valerie was awake and up for the long day this was going to be.

A phone call to Valerie garnered him a, "Hell yes! Let's kick some evil ghost butt!" He knew he didn't have to worry about her being annoyed by ghosts. She seemed as eager to fight them as Danny's parents did.

After talking to Valerie, who was now totally psyched, he called Danny. He hoped there had been no new developments since they left the message.

"Fenton Residence," came a sleepy voice on the end of the line. "Sam speaking."

"Sam?" Tucker asked. "Why are you answering the phone?"

"Cause it was ringing in my ear," Sam, who had fallen asleep on the couch next to Danny, who was still sleeping after watching movie after movie, answered.

"Where's Danny? What's going on?" Tucker asked trying to keep the amusement out of his voice. A sleepy Sam was an easily angered Sam.

"Well," Sam drawled slowly. "Lets see. Last night, Danny went to see Clockwork, Dark Dan escaped. I went to warn Danny and got caught by Skulker. Danny rescued me and we came back to find Dark Dan had been here. Danny's parents have a special ghost shield which thankfully keeps everything out. We've been sitting here all night watching movies, which is kinda nerve wracking when there's a mad ghost out there intent on your distruction. Other than that, we've been waiting for you so we can plot to send Dark Dan back to his own time. We got sick of waiting so Danny and I ran off to Las Vegas and got married, we're expecting twins."

"Ha ha!" Tucker laughed. "You're very funny Miss Manson. Or should I be calling you Mrs. Fenton now." Sam laughed in return.

"Seriously Tuck," Sam said then yawned. "We need you here and Valerie too. There's no telling what he remembers or what he's going to do. Plus Danny and I feel like we are missing a body part without you. Our brains just don't function right without a techno geek."

"I knew I was the brains of the operation," Tucker said smugly. "Thank you for finally admitting it."

"Just get over here Foley," Sam half yelled. "Now."

"Aye, aye Captain," Foley answered then laughed.

"I always knew I was the captain of the operation," Sam said softly. "Thanks for admitting it Tuck." And with that she terminated the call.

**XxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxX**

Breakfast in the Fenton household was more subdued than usual. Sam ate her oatmeal without flirting with Danny. Danny ate his green glowing pancakes without complaint. Jazz was blessedly silent. Jack and Maddie both seemed preoccupied.

Tucker's appearance lightened things up immeasurably. He rousted Sam and Danny from their daze and teased Jazz until she started talking. Valerie's excitement was contagious. She had a lot in common with Maddie and Jack. She loved ghost hunting. They were exuberant in sharing their life's work with the girl. Tucker took a deep breath and sighed as they talked shop. Valerie pulled out her array of ghost weaponry and was arguing with Jack about what exactly needed tweaking to give them the advantage against their newest adversary.

"Looks like Mom and Dad are going to adopt a new child," Jazz said.

"Yeah finally someone who shares their interest in ghost hunting," Danny laughed.

"I thought you shared the interest." Sam said in confusion. "I mean you're always playing with the Fenton ghost gadgets and always fighting ghosts." Danny gave her a blank look.

"It's self defense I'm interested in," he told her.

"Speaking of self defense," Tucker interjected. "What are we going to do about Dark Dan? I mean, what if the medallion doesn't work?"

"It has to work," Danny said forcefully. "I don't think there is any way to destroy him….unless you want to wait 10 years for me to develop my abilities to match with his, and even then there's no guarantee."

"But you're already advancing faster than he is," Tucker pointed out. "You have the ghostly wail. I bet there are tons of other things you can do that you don't know about."

"But this isn't the time to go testing out what I can and cannot do," Danny argued. "I think the ghostly wail simply came out of desperation."

Tucker sighed and began playing with his PDA. Sam and Danny looked at each other for a moment, then smiled as they took each other's hands.

Jazz shook her head. "You guys need to be discussing what you are going to do when we meet up with Dark Dan again. What are you going to do? How are you going to lure him into the thermos. How are you going to get the amulet around his neck? A well thought out plan has more of a chance of working than flying by the seat of your pants."

"Danny always flies by the seat of his pants," Sam giggled. Danny gave her a funny look and they both laughed. Jazz growled in exasperation.

Tucker looked up over his glasses from his PDA. "You see what I put up with?" he asked Jazz. "It's like this all the time. Darn love birds."

**XxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxX**

Vlad opened his eyes slowly. He could see light, but not much else it was as though his eyes were covered with some kind of filmy residue. He blinked a few times and things came into better focus. What had happened? His head was pounding. His body ached.

The last thing Vlad could remember was being cramped up in a Fenton Thermos with those two idiots Spectra and Bertrand. That infernal contraption was hard to escape from, especially considering it was made by that bumbling moron Jack Fenton. Wait! It was coming back to him. The escape. The ghost. The fight. He had been defeated! Where was he now? He tried to sit up but found he couldn't move. He blinked again and again until things came into slightly better focus, but not much.

Vlad was laying on a table. No tied to a table. In his lab. He laughed. Imagine that. An enemy of his brought him home. Tied him up and expected him to stay put. He could swear that it was the workings of Daniel Fenton which had brought him here. Big mistake. He made the small effort to turn himself to Plasmius, his ghost form, but nothing happened. He frowned and tried again. He remained in his human form. Vlad closed his eyes and took a series of deep cleansing breaths. So Jack Fenton had figured out how to suppress his ghost half. It didn't matter. Vlad knew how powerful his ghost half was, if he concentrated hard enough he'd be able to work past any disruption in the access of his other half. He ignored the strange empty feeling which was tingling through his body and reached out to his ghost half. Nothing. His head was now throbbing in indescribable pain. He kept his eyes closed and forced himself to relax. Whatever the device was, it was good. But, he refused to let it best him.

Deep waves of nausea encompassed Vlad as he lay on the table. His head pounding and all his limbs aching. He decided to take things slow. First he wiggled his toes. Toes check. Then he moved his feet and tried to bend his knees. Both legs were intact. He wiggled his fingers and tried to lift his arms. All there. He opened his eyes again and worked on focusing on the ceiling, he squinted his eyes until things came into focus. He finally realized with a stunned admittance that nothing was wrong with his vision that a pair of glasses wouldn't cure. He frowned. His need for corrective lenses had departed with his gaining of his ghostly half. Why was he looking around myopically now?

"So you are awake," asked a voice it was smooth and sinister.

"Yes I am!" Vlad answered angrily. "Who are you? How did you get me here? What are you doing here? Just wait until I get free of these bounds! I will destroy you."

The voice laughed, sending a chill down Vlad's aching spine. "Destroy me?" the voice asked. "I am almost tempted to let you go just for the enjoyment of seeing you try old man."

Vlad concentrated hard and tried to transform, and failed again.

"Keep trying to transform to your ghost self," The voice advised. "You'll soon learn the truth."

"Truth?" Vlad asked as he struggled.

"I have separated you from your ghost half old man." The voice said. Vlad froze in fear. What did he mean?. Separated from his ghost half? That wasn't possible. Was it? The table moved so Vlad was in a more horizontal position. Someone put something over his eyes. Glasses? Where the heck did this stranger find them, and how did he know he would need them? Everything came into focus. He was met with a grinning evil face which looked stunningly familiar, but not.

"Who are you?" Vlad asked.

"I've been called Dark Dan," The ghost answered as he continued to grin evily at Vlad. He laughed at the fear growing in Vlad's eyes. "I see you know who I am. Good. I don't like having to explain myself. It's too tedious."

"Put my ghost half back!" Vlad demanded. "And you won't get hurt. I'll even let you join me in world domination."

Dark Dan laughed. "I don't need your help old man. I can dominate the world quite easily on my own. As for your ghost half, well. I have plans for that. Plans that involve one Danny Fenton and his ghostly half. Dan's red eyes sparkled as he laughed in glee. "I'm quite positive that Danny's next order of business will be to arrive here. To rescue you Masters. The deluded goodness of the boy would demand such action."

"What good would merging my ghost half with Daniel's do?" Vlad asked. "All you would have would be another rival to destroy."

"You would think so wouldn't you?" Dark Dan asked. Then he laughed evilly as he moved to the ghost portal. "I'll deal with you later old man."

Dark Dan, started to enter the ghost zone through the portal, but something happened. The portal didn't quite open up. Instead a high pitched whirring emitted from the device…then boom! Dark Dan was sent flying across the room.

**XxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxX**

"The battle with Dark Dan has to take place in the Ghost Zone," Danny said. "I may be able to talk a few of our enemies into a truce."

"Oh yeah," Tucker said as he shook his head. "I can see that."

Jazz agreed with Tucker. "What are you going to do? Say. Hey Mr. Skulker. I know that I've thwarted your plans over and over again, but I need you to be my friend now. Temporarily of course, so that we can defeat this guy and like we can be enemies again."

"Jazz there is no need to be so facetious!" Maddie exclaimed. "I think it's a sweet plan."

"It's a dumb plan!" Jack boomed. "To rely on you enemies in your darkest hour is to be like a blind man depending on the deaf to lead him in the darkness."

"Lau Tzu?" Sam asked feeling a little confused by Jack's statement.

"No," Jack answered. "Jack Fenton!" Sam looked at Danny who merely shrugged his shoulders.

"I think," Valerie said, "With the two of us working together, we can bust his butt! You're fast. I'm fast. He's only one, it's not like he can keep an eye on both of us at once."

Danny shook his head, "No wouldn't work. He can multiply himself. While one dispatches you, the other can dispatch me. No problem."

"Damn," Valerie hissed then laid her forehead on the cool table. "I'm out of ideas then."

"We're just going to have to face him and do our best." Sam finally said. "We've always succeeded before, and against the worst odds. Why not this time?"

Danny looked at Sam for a moment. She was right. Things always had a way of working themselves out. They would this time too. They just needed to go at it with everything they had. Plus he had the ghostly wail, that seemed to really throw Dark Dan off.

"Maybe we should try to go rescue Vlad," Danny finally said after a long laps of silence. The last thing we need is Dark Dan separating him from his ghost half."

"Oh great. Do you think he's going to keep a truce with you?" Tucker asked. "Not likely."

"He is the lesser of two evils," Danny replied.

Sam laughed, "You've said a mouthful there Danny." She looked around. "So what are we waiting for?"

**XxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxX**

Danny stood outside in the Ghost Zone staring in shock at what he saw, or at least what he didn't see.

"What's wrong?" Tucker called from the Speeder. "You look like you've seen a ghost."

"Ha ha!" Sam said as she punched Tucker in the arm. "So not funny."

"It's gone guys," Danny said. "Vlad's portal is gone."

"Is that a good or a bad thing?" Valerie asked. Danny shook his head and shrugged his shoulders.

"Uh, Danny?" Tucker said weakly. "I think that's kinda my fault. Well your Dad's fault really. We set it up to blow the next time someone tried to use it."

Danny smiled. "Well this puts a little crimp in Dark Dan's plans I think." He said as he floated over to the Speeder. "But it puts a kink in our plan as well." Danny was about to turn back when the portal opened behind him.

"Danny!" Sam, Tucker and Valerie screamed as Dark Dan flew through the portal. He barreled into Danny who just didn't have enough time to react. Valerie grabbed the controls on the Speeder and began fire well focused blasts at Dark Dan. He shrugged them off like they were nothing.

"Do you think you can rescue him?" Dark Dan asked as he grabbed an angry Danny by the scruff of the neck. Danny took the initiative and the chance and threw the amulet around Dark Dan's neck.

"Clockwork!" He yelled. Feeling shocked but kind of pleased that getting the amulet on Dark Dan was this easy.

**XxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxX**


	6. Chapter 6

**Are you reading without reviewing? Please consider writing a review. Don't make me beg.**

** I'm sorry if this veers into silliness. Let me know if you hate it please (or if you love it). I'll try to update again ASAP.  
**

Chapter Six

Dark Dan laughed as he felt the amulet slip around his neck. He knew what it was, and assumed it's purpose was to send him back to his own time. He had no intention of leaving, at least not until he'd insured his existence. He grabbed the amulet and crushed it in his hands.

"You didn't think this was going to work did you?" He said in Danny's ear. "You aren't a fool enough to think it would be so easy to get rid of me?" He laughed and Danny's heart sank. He tried to go intangible, but something was stopping him. Dark Dan had a good firm grip on him and there was no escape. Danny turned his head and looked at Sam who was looking back with a fearful expression on her face.

"You want your friends to witness your destruction?" Dark Dan asked as he caught the line of Danny's vision. "I think that's something we can manage." He grabbed a hold of the Speeder and pulled it with him along with Danny through the portal and into Vlad's lab.

"Holy Cow!" Valerie said as she surveyed the lab. It'd looked like it'd been blown to bits. Vlad was laying tied to a table, and floating not too far away was a strange looking apparition, it looked like Plasmius, but not quite. It was being held in place by something that looked a great deal like one of Jack's containment fields.

Dark Dan ripped away the bonds holding Vlad to the table and shoved him away. Vlad was still too weak to do anything but cry out and flail weakly. He landed on the floor with a thud and a whimper.

"Don't worry Danny Fenton," Dark Dan said. "This is going to hurt so bad that when the newly made me comes to kill you, it will be a mercy."

Danny closed his eyes and thought and thought. What could he do to prevent this from happening? Nothing. He couldn't move. Dark Dan was starting up the machine to rip his ghost half from him. He took a deep breath and steeled himself to fight as hard as he could. He wasn't going to make this easy. He felt a cold beam hit him. It felt like the skin was being ripped from his body. Then he heard a ping and a pop and a whirring sound. Dark Dan cursed.

"Vlad!" He yelled. "You can't even make a machine that's not going to break after one use!" Dark Dan started tinkering with the device and Danny turned his head and sought out his friends. Who were now tied to the wall. How did that happen? Did he blank out at one point? Why was he still screaming?

"Looks like you are off the hook," Dark Dan said as he leaned down and whispered in Danny's ear. "I'm going back to your father's lab. I'll probably dispatch him while I'm there. When I return, we'll finish what we started." With that, he was gone.

**XxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxX**

"Danny! Are you all right?" Sam called in concern. He had screamed for what seemed an eternity. Her heart felt like it was breaking as she witnessed his pain.

"I'm okay," Danny called hoarsely. "How about you guys?"

"We're tied up tighter than Thanksgiving turkeys," Valerie answered angrily.

"I can't even reach my PDA!" Tucker lamented.

Danny took a deep breath. "Vlad?" he asked. "Vlad are you there? Are you okay?"

"I'm here Daniel," came Vlad's weak reply from the floor. "No I'm not okay. Do not ask me if I can get up and release you. I cannot move. I am too weak."

"Blah blah blah!" Valerie called as she struggled to free herself. "Are we supposed to feel sorry for your bad self? If I could get untied I'd be kicking your evil butt from here to China!"

Tucker sent Valerie an amused glance. "You're certainly obsessed with kicking butts," he said.

Valerie turned and gave Tucker a smug look. "That's because I can."

"Danny," Sam said trying to remain calm and level. "He's going to rip out your ghost half!"

"I know," Danny said trying not to sound as hysterical as he felt. "But I'm going to do everything I can to make it hard. Maybe I can break the machine again." He doubted it. He was feeling light headed and his skin felt like it was on fire.

"Isn't the fact that you're not going to let go of your ghost side without a fight good?" Tucker asked. "I mean considering what you told me Clockwork said."

Sam looked at Tucker. "What do you mean what he told you Clockwork said? Danny what did Clockwork say?" When had he had time to talk to Tucker without her?

Danny sighed. He knew he was going to be in trouble with Sam when and if he got out of this predicament for confiding in Tucker and not her, but some things just needed a guy perspective. He had to gather his strength together in order to talk.

"Clockwork told me that my ghost half is neither good or evil. It's what I make of it. It amplifies my character. It's me, just more so." Danny started. "I think in the timeline where Dark Dan happened, I wasn't so good inside anymore. I was wounded inside from losing everyone. My thoughts were dark and I was in pain. I wanted to be rid of my ghost half because I thought it caused all my problems. I betrayed it, and allowed the evil to grow. That's why Dark Dan is how he is. Of course Vlad has a lot to do with it too. His evil side overpowered any goodness left in my ghost half and so there you have Dark Dan."

"Oh nice," Vlad said from the floor. "Blame me."

"If the shoe fits!" Tucker yelled.

"Bite me techno geek," Vlad spat.

"Oh be glad I can't get down from this wall you vile piece of human waste otherwise I'd be kicking your butt from her to China and back!"

"Ha!" Valerie said. "I'm not the only butt kicker around here!" Tucker sent her a charming smile.

"So," Danny continued. He paused a moment to make sure no one was going to interrupt him. "If I can focus all the goodness possible into my ghost side, then maybe we have a chance. If I can just hold on to it I will. I don't want to be separated from my ghost half. I may have felt a time or two that it would be easier to have it gone, but it's me now you know? I wouldn't be me without it. It's a part of me. I don't want to let it go."

"Mind if I throw up now?" Vlad asked. "Because it's getting too damn sweet in here. I can't breath from the stench of it."

"And I love you Sam." Danny said as he ignored Vlad. "The ghost part of me loves you too and I'm not going to let go of that, even if I'm pulled in two."

"Romeo! Romeo! Oh Romeo!" Vlad called from the floor.

"Shut up!" Sam shouted. "Or I'm going to be first in line for your butt kicking to China."

"Oh I'm so scared," Vlad laughed then closed his eyes and said, "Oh that hurts."

"Tucker," Danny said as he continued to ignore Vlad. "You are the best friend ever. If I don't make it out of this alive. Take care of Sam for me. Don't let her forget how much I love her. She gives me courage and strength." He turned his head and looked at Sam who had burst into tears. He really wished he could comfort her.

"Oh can we just get over the melodrama already?" Vlad asked. "What's next a declaration of love for me?"

"Vlad," Danny said tiredly. "When I get out of this, and I will…I'm going to kick your skinny little ass all the way to China and back three times."

"Oh well," Vlad laughed weakly. "My feelings are hurt then."

Danny didn't get a chance to say anything more. Dark Dan returned. He said nothing as he fixed the device. Everyone eventually fell into a daze as time seemed to inch by. Danny watched and waited partly in fear and partly in resignation.

Danny shouldn't have been tired, he'd had a great deal of sleep in the last 24 hours, but laying there in slight tingling pain caused his eyes to grow heavy and he drifted to sleep. It wasn't long until he drifted into the land of dreams, or was it reality? Was he really dreaming? Maybe it had all been a nightmare and he was still sleeping at Sam's house after running away from school.

_Danny opened his eyes and looked around the room. Yes, he was still at Sam's house. He sat up and looked around. He was alone. Sam must still be at school. He looked at the clock, no, she should be home by now. He picked up the phone with the intention of dialing her cell. But there was no dial tone. He hung up and tried again. He began to dial the number, but he couldn't remember it. He knew Sam's cell by heart! He hung up to try again, yet there was no dial tone. He tried one last time. The phone rang._

_"Hello Danny," Jack said as he answered the phone. "Why aren't you in school my boy?"_

_"Dad?" Danny asked in confusion. "Why are you answering Sam's phone?"_

_"Sam?" Jack asked. "Who's Sam?"_

_"You know, my friends? Sam and Tucker?"_

_"You know Danny," Jack said ignoring Danny. "A fool and his ghost half are soon parted."_

_Danny hung up the phone and turned around. He came face to face with his ghost half. He stood there just staring with those glowing green eyes. Danny looked at him in confusion, the ghost's expression mirrored his own._

_"What are you doing?" Danny finally asked._

_"Is that the best you can do? Ask me what I'm doing?" Phantom asked. "You are a fool."_

_"I'm not a fool!" Danny said. "It's just that…how are you doing that? How can I be standing here talking to myself."_

_"I don't have the answers," Phantom said. "I'm you. I just know that soon we'll be separated and then what will we be?"_

_"How can we be separated?" Danny asked. "I am you. You are me. Right?"_

_The ghost shrugged. "So what about Sam and Tucker?"_

_Danny felt confused. Why was Phantom asking about Sam and Tucker?_

_"We are going to fail them!" Phantom said. "I can't prevent this any more than you can. What should I do?"_

_"We can't fail them," Danny answered. "It's not an option."_

_"I don't think there's a choice!" Phantom replied._

_Danny shook his head in bewilderment. He walked to the window and found Sam standing outside. He tried to open the window to let her in, but the window was jammed. She put her hand against the glass. She was crying. Danny blinked in confusion. Since when did Sam cry? He put his hand against hers on the glass._

_"We'll never be able to reach her again," Phantom said. Danny kept eye contact with Sam who was looking over his shoulder at Phantom. She looked back at Danny then mouthed the words, "I'm so sorry Danny."_

_"Do you love her too?" Danny asked Phantom._

_"Of course I do!" Phantom answered in a tone that said he'd been asked a silly question. "I'm you!"_

_"And if we are separated?" Danny asked._

_"We are forever bound in brotherhood," Phantom answered._

_"Brothers." Danny answered. "We can fight."_

_"You're human body cannot withstand the torture of the fight," Phantom stated._

_Danny watched as Sam started to fade away. "What will we do then?"_

_"What will you have me do?" Phantom asked._

_"Fight." Danny answered. "We cannot let Dark Dan win. Protect my family. Protect my friends."_

_Phantom began to fade as well. "And Sam?"_

_"Listen to her," Danny said. "Always listen to Sam."_

** XxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxX**

Danny opened his eyes. He was being shaken. He blinked a few times feeling disoriented then disappointed that he was still bound to a table in Vlad's lab.

"All right everybody!" Dan called. "Wake up! Say good bye to Danny. Say good bye to your future."

Sam and Tucker lifted their heads and looked at Danny. "It's going to be okay," he promised them. "Everything is going to be fine."

Dark Dan turned on the machine and Danny felt like he was going to have a change of heart as fresh pain coursed through his body. No. Everything wasn't going to be fine. He was on fire. He felt like he was being torn in two. He closed his eyes tight. "I'm not letting go. I will not let go. I will hold on!" He managed to fight for five minutes and then the pain overwhelmed him and he began to scream.

It felt as if his skin was being flayed from his body. It felt as if his raw body was dipped in acid. It felt as if his poor burnt body was then set to flame broil in a barbecue pit. The pain was unbearable. Danny could feel unconsciousness creeping in as darkness stole around the edge of his vision. It would be so easy to slip into the bliss of being unaware of his pain. He tried to relax but the scream of agony was still forcing itself from his lips not unlike the ghostly wail. He did his best to focus to talk to his ghost half. "I don't want to let you go! Stay with me! Stay! We love Sam. We need to stay with Sam. Fight! Fight! We love Tucker and Jazz and Mom and Dad. We need to save them from this monster. Fight! Fight!" Danny put all his energy into his thoughts, but he had no control over what happened next as he was assailed by blinding white hot pain and he slipped into unconsciousness.

_**XxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxX**_

Sam was unaware that she was screaming until Danny stopped. Tucker and Valerie both had their eyes closed and heads turned, they couldn't bare to watch Danny writhing in agony any longer. Sam kept her tear filled eyes focused on Danny as her scream died out. She watched as his ghost half separated from him and floated just above the table. It looked at her. It's eyes glowing green. She looked back. It was still Danny, even though it wasn't part of him. She could tell. It moved toward her but then stopped as if considering something.

Dark Dan turned off the containment shield that housed Vlad's ghost side, Plasmius. "Go now!" Dark Dan said to the apparition. "All you have to do is over power him and you will be the strongest creature alive."

Sam looked briefly at Plasmius then looked at Phantom. "Run!" She cried weakly. "Run run run run!" And he did. He burst through the portal and into the ghost zone at the speed of light.

It took Dark Dan a moment to realize what happened. Then he yelled at Plasmius, "After him! Now!" Plasmius took off through the portal with Dark Dan not far behind. The three friends were left tied to the wall. Danny unconscious on the table and Vlad weak and shaking on the floor.

"It looks like it worked," Tucker said softly. "Danny's ghost half didn't want to merge with Plasmius."

"But now we're stuck here," Valerie said in exasperation. "That thing's probably gonna catch up to him and then we're all toast."

Tucker nodded his head. "Val," he said in resignation. "Thanks for going to the dance with me. I had a really good time."

Valerie smiled. "I'm glad you did. I did too. I'm sorry we couldn't get to know each other better."

"Dance?" a disembodied voice asked. "I want to go to the dance!"

"Princess!" Tucker yelled. "Yes!" he never thought he'd be happy to see her as she drifted through the portal toward him.

"I want to go to the ball and dance with the prince," the princess ghost chanted.

"Untie me," Tucker told her. "And I'll make sure you get every pink dress Sam has ever owned and we'll dance until the sun comes up." The princess ghost smiled then looked at Valerie and growled.

"Oh great," Valerie said. "She hates me." Tucker only laughed as the princess released him. He quickly untied Valerie then went after Sam. She couldn't stand on her own and collapsed into his arms, sobbing.

"Come on Sam," Tucker said as he led her to the Speeder. "It's going to be okay."

Valerie ran to the table and untied Danny. She checked to make sure he was still breathing then hoisted him off the table and carried him into the vehicle. Tucker whistled in appreciation and she smiled.

"What are we going to do about Vlad?" Valerie asked as she settled Danny in a seat next to Sam. The princess ghost floated in and stood next to Sam.

"We can't very well leave him here!" Tucker exclaimed.

"Why not? Valerie asked.

"Because Danny would want us to take him," was all Tucker said.

_**XxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxX**_

"Do you know how to get through the Ghost Zone?" Valerie asked as they sped through the strange darkness.

Tucker smiled. "No, but I don't need to know. The Specter Speeder has a nice little homing device." He hit a few buttons and the console beeped and the Speeder took off on it's own, taking them back to Danny's house.

Sam sat buckled into her seat next to Danny. He was still unconscious. She reached over and moved the hair off of his face. She looked at Vlad who was watching with interest.

"He's not going to die," Vlad told her in a irritated tone. "If that's what you're thinking."

Sam narrowed her eyes. "I didn't think he was going to," she said. "I'm just worried about him. Is he going to hurt when he wakes up?"

"You have no idea," Vlad answered. He was still hurting himself. "Danny was a fool for resisting like he did. It only caused him more pain."

"There's nothing we can do for him?" Sam asked as she reached out and took Danny's hand.

"Gahhh!" Vlad said and tried to move enough to make Sam release Danny's hand. "Don't touch him for goodness sake! You have no idea! No idea how bad it hurts! Don't touch him!"

Sam dropped Danny's hand then looked to Tucker. "How long till we're home?"

"Not much longer," answered Tucker and he looked at Danny slumped in the chair. "I wish we could catch up with his ghost half and bring it behind the shield with us."

"He'll find his way to us," Sam said confidently. "He just has to lead Dark Dan and Plasmius on a chase first."

Vlad rolled his eyes. "And you know this why?"

"Because I know Danny," She answered simply.

Valerie was watching the Ghost Zone go by through the window. She still couldn't believe what her eyes saw. She turned and looked at the group a moment. "How are we going to reunite Danny with his ghost half?" she asked.

**_XxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxX_**

Danny surfaced back to consciousness slowly. In the beginning, he would become aware of the searing pain his body was in and drifted back into the mercy of sleep, but strange pain filled nightmares began to haunt him, so he opened his eyes.

"Danny. Sweetie," Maddie said in hope as she bent over her son. "Come on Sweetie wake up." Danny sleepily opened his eyes and looked at his mother. He tried to smile but his face hurt too much.

She smiled instead. "Everything is going to be all right," Maddie told her son. "Everyone is sleeping. We are all okay. The shield is holding just fine, though no one has attacked us."

"Vlad?" Danny half whispered.

"Is downstairs making a nuisance of himself," Maddie answered. Danny tried to smile again then turned his head and looked around the room. Sam looked like she'd fallen asleep kneeling at the bed. Her head was laying on her arms on the edge of the mattress.

"Don't try to move," Maddie said. "I'm going to get you some pain reliever. I'll be right back."

If he could have laughed, Danny would have. First off he didn't think he could move, and secondly there was no pain killer in all the world that could numb the pain of having half of your soul ripped from your body. Of course he was unable to say anything as she rushed from the room.

Danny turned his eyes again to Sam. He wiggled his fingers. Well, at least they worked. He used them to move his hand over to her then touched her tear stained face. She opened her eyes and jumped. She looked at him sleepily in amazement at first then smiled shakily.

"How are you feeling?" She asked as she wiped her face. She didn't want him to know she'd been crying. Tucker had already seen her break down and she knew he'd never let her live it down.

"I feel like I've been run through the Fenton Ghost Peeler," Danny joked weakly. "How are you?"

Sam smiled sadly. "I'm all right. Just scared for you."

"What happened?" he asked as he closed his eyes. It was hard to reopen them. Sleep threatened to claim him again.

Sam ran her fingers through her hair as she leaned on the bed close to him. "You separated from your ghost half. Except it was different from the time you jumped through the ghost catcher. It was you, but more. You know? I told you to run. So. You ran. Dark Dan and Plasmius took off after you. Princess showed up again and freed us. We brought you here about 5 hours ago. We haven't heard anything. So I'm hoping that your ghost half is out there eluding Dark Dan and his nasty plans."

"I hope so too," Danny said. He focused all his energy into reaching up over and brushed Sam's face with his fingers. She smiled shakily. This was not the time to break down on him.

"Everything is going to work out," Danny told her. "The first part of my plan has worked right?"

Sam gave Danny a look of disbelief. "You had a plan?" Danny would have shrugged if he could have. Sam laughed. "Some plan."

"Sam!" Tucker ran into the room. "Maddie says Danny's awake." He stopped and looked at Danny.

"Yo Tuck!" Danny said forcing himself to sound normal, not knowing that he didn't.

"Whoa!" Tucker said. "Dark Dan did a dance on your head!"

Danny started shivering. The strain was just too much on him. Sam gave Tucker a worried look. "I think he needs to rest." She said. Tucker nodded his head and left the room.

Sam turned and looked at Danny. "I'm gonna go down too. Talk to Jazz and Val."

"Please stay," Danny said as his voice shook as he closed his eyes. "Don't want to be alone Sam. Feel so alone."

Sam sat down on the floor and rested her head on the bed. "I'll stay as long as you need me." She whispered.

"I think I need you forever," Danny tried to say but drifted back into unconsciousness instead.

_**XxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxX**_


	7. Chapter 7

**Rushing right along dear readers. Sorry. Seems like I'm just that way. Hope you enjoy and REVIEW REVIEW REVIEW . If the story starts sagging, it's cause you didn't review! Ha! Just kidding. I'm just tired. I now have a forum if you want to go there and you want to ask questions about this story. I know I ALWAYS say this, but the next chapter is going to be delayed. I'm still a little stumped on Chapter 9. Maybe some input from all of you will help me get over the block  
**

Chapter Seven

Danny Phantom, the ghost half zoomed through the Ghost Zone. He didn't look behind him. He didn't know where he was going. He just knew that it was important that he escape. The horror of being separated from his human half was rivaled only by his fear of what would happen if those chasing him caught up with him.

Phantom wasn't sure where to go from here. He stopped briefly, long enough to get his bearings then he sped off again as fast as possible. The thoughts going through his head were ones of kindness, friendship, love, family, friends and Sam. Finally he thought of his human self. He felt lost without himself. He chuckled for a moment at the thought he was missing himself before he stopped again and looked around in bewilderment. Which way should he go? His biggest urge was to find his human half. The pull to find him was intense, but he knew that they would be expecting him to go straight there so, he kept moving.

He spotted something that looked familiar. It was like an oasis in the desert. He smiled to himself then swooped down to Skulker's lair. Wouldn't the hunter be surprised to see him in his current state. Danny Phantom wasn't worried about Skulker's reaction.

"So you have returned Whelp," Skulker said as Phantom swooped into his lair. "I warned you that I would not be merciful this time…" The hunter paused and looked at Phantom for a moment. Phantom just stood there grinning.

"You are changed," Skulker declared, remaining on the defensive. "Something is very different about you."

"I've been separated from my human half," Phantom explained slowly.

"Ha the Halfa is no more then," Skulker said then put away his weapons. "What are you doing here? Have you come to surrender? You are of no use to me now. You are nothing more than a ghost."

"I need help," Phantom said. "I am being chased by Plasmius and my future evil self. They want me to join with them to create another evil being. I just want to get back to my human half."

Skulker looked interested for a moment. "Your human half still exists? I thought perhaps he was errr dispatched." Phantom shook his head. "How interesting." Skulker said.

"And I might add that they could be here any minute and that would be the end of me and you. He's not a nice guy." Danny said as he backed away, feeling a little threatened

"So you came to me for what?" Skulker asked "Protection or to lead then to me so they can get rid of me for you?"

"I had no where else to go," Phantom said sadly. "I can't to home. That's where they expect me to be. They'll destroy my family…."

"Your family?" Skulker scoffed. "You're a ghost you don't have family. Your human half has a family. What do you care about that?"

"I care!" Phantom declared. "They love me."

"Deluded creature!" Skulker laughed. "They care about your human half. Not you. They're probably exceedingly relieved that you are gone from them." Skulker paused. "Someone is approaching," he warned. Phantom prepared himself to run.

"Skulker," Poindexter screeched as he careened into the lair. "Have you heard about the halfa?" He stopped and stared at Phantom. "I guess you have."

"Hi! Poindexter," Phantom said cheerfully. Poindexter looked at him doubtfully. "Is he okay?"

"He wants to go reunite with his human half," Skulker told Poindexter in disgust.

"I can't say as I blame him," Poindexter said. I've had the opportunity to live his life. It's great!"

Phantom frowned as he watched Poindexter and Skulker interact. "I didn't know you two were friends," he said.

"As long as our goals do not conflict," Skulker said as he eyed Poindexter. "Then there can be friendship between us." He paused again. "Yet another approaches." Phantom again tensed, ready to flee.

"Ember!" He said as she sauntered into view. She smiled seductively as she walked over to Phantom.

"The news is all over the Zone." She said as she checked him out. "I had to come see this for myself. Of course there are a few who are plotting your demise. You're very vulnerable right now." Phantom shivered. He didn't trust Ember. He didn't trust Skulker or Poindexter, but they at least seemed more straightforward than the blue flame haired ghost standing before him.

"You are not to touch him," Skulker ordered. "He is in my lair, under my jurisdiction. If anyone is going to destroy him it will be me. I do not chose to destroy him….yet."

"Gee that's comforting," Phantom said dryly. Skulker grinned at him.

Ember leaned toward Danny and narrowed her eyes. "Tell us the story," she ordered. "How is it that you came to be separated from your human half?"

"A human half he wants to be reunited with!" Skulker declared in disgust.

"Eww!" Ember said as she shuddered. "Why?"

"I love my family," Phantom said in bewilderment, wondering what was so wrong about that. "And I miss my human self and I miss Sam."

Ember smirked. "That girl huh?" She got a far away look in her eyes for a moment then sighed. "Yeah I guess I can understand love. I'd go back for that." She looked over at Skulker who was making a face of disgust "But nothing else."

Skulker put up his hand, "Someone approaches." Phantom tensed yet again.

"Beware! I am the Box Ghost!" The box ghost cried as he entered the lair. "I have come to see the new creature! Beware."

"Oh shut up already," Ember said. "That's so annoying."

"Not as annoying as your music!" The box ghost said in his oh so ghostly tone of voice. Ember rolled her eyes and the box ghost flew over to Phantom and looked him up and down.

"I vote we keep him here," Ember said as she ignored the box ghost. "The longer he stays like this the less he'll want to go back."

"But!" Phantom said. "What if my human half can't live without me?"

"All the better for us," Skulker said.

Phantom closed his eyes. "I wish I could just go back."

There was a brilliant flash and Desiree appeared, "So you have wished it," She cried. "And so." She paused. "I don't have you grant your wish. You're a ghost!" She smiled slyly as she looked at Phantom. "Fallen on hard times haven't we," she said in a pouty tone.

Everyone laughed but Phantom. He was defiantly reconsidering his idea to come here. He doubted they could hold him, but the last thing he needed were more enemies chasing him.

"I'm not here to gawk," Desiree said. "I'm here to warn you. There is some big guy floating around with Plasmius. Walker sent his men after him and the guy blew them into oblivion, like they were nothing. Looks like there's a new boss in town."

"If you get me back to my human half," Phantom said urgently. "I can reunite with him and I can defeat him. I'll save all of you the misery of his torture. Trust me I know what he can do. He can make you all a lot more miserable than I can."

The ghosts all talked amongst themselves. Phantom was a little surprised at their ability to unify at all. They were always after the same goal. To be the most powerful ghost. But since the most powerful ghost ever was currently terrorizing the Ghost Zone looking for Phantom, he guessed their unification was easier to understand.

"All right," Stalker said as he separated from the group. "We're going to help you. But there are going to be conditions."

"If those conditions are to not stop you when you try to terrorize people, then sorry I'll have to find my way back on my own," Phantom said.

Skulker laughed, "No. No. Whelp you jump to conclusions. The conditions are, if we ever need your help with anything, here in the Ghost Zone, we can each call on you in return for this favor."

"But in the Ghost Zone only," Phantom clarified, "And nothing I help you with can in anyway impact anything outside of Ghost Zone."

"Deal!" Skulker said.

"Okay," Phantom answered. "Lets get me home. I'm hungry. They all gave him a strange look and he smiled. "It's just a little bit of humor. All of you are way too serious!"

_**XxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxX**_

Skulker called on several other ghosts in The Zone to assist them. They'd already heard of Dark Dan and his willingness to destroy anyone and anything that got in the way. Skulker claimed leadership of the mission to get Phantom home and they began to plan.

They moved slowly, each taking turns guarding Phantom. Phantom himself was very uncomfortable. They were at the halfway point when they were confronted with Dark Dan and Plasmius. They all huddled around Phantom to protect him.

"Hand the boy over to me," Dan told them menacingly. "I will then show you all mercy."

The ghosts all spoke amongst themselves. For a long time. Finally Dark Dan's patience wore thin an he opened his mouth to say something when a ghost spoke.

"We've decided to all leave." One of the ghosts spoke up. The stood for awhile and looked at Dark Dan.

"Well?" he asked.

"I'm going! I'm going!" Poindexter yelled. He went off by himself and the other ghosts stood. Dark Dan looked at them expectantly.

"I am the box ghost," The box ghost cried. "Master of all things cardboard and square! Beware!" Dark Dan looked at him blandly. The box ghost stared at him for a moment then yelled "BEWARE!" and flew away.

"Dude!" Johnny 13 said as he looked at Kitty. "This guy is seriously huge and serious. I don't think I like him."

"Me either Johnny," Kitty said as she clung to his arm. "I say we blow out of here."

"Sorry Phantom!" Johnny 13 called as he and Kitty flew away.

Ember and Desiree stood with several of the lesser ghosts who were still crowded around Phantom.

"He's kinda cute," Ember said to Desiree.

Desiree looked Dark Dan up and down. He was getting seriously angry. "I suppose if you like the tall dark and gruesome thing." She said in a bored tone. "I'm not sticking around for the kid. You stay if you want." With that Desiree fled.

"Enough with this! You are stalling! Surrender the boy to me now!"

"All right!" Ember said. "Man you don't have to get your tights all in a twist." She smirked at Dark Dan for a moment then flew a safe distance away and called the lesser ghosts to her. They dissipated leaving it apparent that the Phantom was not there. Dan yelled in rage, but Ember and the others were already gone.

Dan yelled in rage then took off in the direction leading to the Fentons.

_**XxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxX**_

"Thank you," Phantom said to Skulker as they stood in the Fenton lab.

"Yes yes," Skulker said. "You will be thanking me for a long time. I am not sticking around. I don't suggest you tarry" With that he zoomed back through the portal.

Phantom hit the secret panic button under one of the work stations and turned off the portal. An alarm began to squeal and he could see Jack peaking down from the stairs.

"Uh! Hi Dad!" he said

"How do I know it's you?" Jack asked. He'd been warned of Dark Dan's ability to shape shift.

Phantom faltered. He wasn't sure what to tell Jack. "Jazz is a pin head?" He asked.

Jack laughed. "All right that's good enough for me. You now have 3.5 seconds to…."

Phantom was upstairs before Jack could answer. The shield rearmed and they stood looking at each other.

"Um, You'll uh…find yourself upstairs," Jack said then scratched his head in confusion. The Phantom said nothing else he just shot straight up through the ceiling.

Sam, who was standing at the window jumped when he appeared. She looked at him wide eyed then at Danny sleeping on the bed then back at him.

"Hi!" He said as he advanced on her. "I made it back!"

"I'm so glad!" Sam said feeling relieved and happy all at once. He attempted to hug her, but he just wasn't able to maintain solid form and phased right through her.

"Darn!" he said and they both laughed. Phantom then looked at Danny laying on the bed. "Is he? Am I all right?"

"Yeah," Sam answered. "He's in a lot of pain." Phantom nodded.

Danny opened his eyes then jolted as he looked at Phantom. "Whoa," he said weakly. "This is weird."

"Tell me about it!" Phantom said. "I can't even hug my girlfriend."

"You mean my girlfriend," Danny said.

"No mine," Phantom growled.

"Oh geeze," Sam sighed. Both Danny and Phantom started laughing She gave them both exasperated looks.

"So how are we going to put us back together?" Phantom asked Danny.

Danny shivered in pain and said he didn't know. Phantom gave Sam a questioning look. She only shook her head. Phantom moved toward Danny. He hesitated a second then before Sam could even protest, overshadowed Danny.

Danny sat up, or rather Phantom overshadowing Danny sat up. "Ouch!" he said. "I'm, I mean he's really not feeling well." Sam opened and closed her mouth a few times. It was tough to comment on this situation. It was just too weird.

"But," Danny….no Phantom said. "We defiantly feel better than we did." He got out of bed and walked over to Sam. "Now we would like to hug you Sam. Thank you for having so much courage for us."

"Yeah," Sam said as she took a slight step back. "It's nothing really." Her eyes darted to the door. "We should tell everyone your…both here." She frowned at the look of hurt in Danny's eyes.

"This is seriously freaking me out," she said. "Let's go figure out how to put you back together Humpty Dumpty."

"Okay," Danny sighed as he stepped away from Sam. "Let's go." He held out his hand. She hesitated a second then smiled wryly and took it and pulled him out of the room.

"Slowly!" Danny groaned. "He…I mean I'm still hurting a little bit."

"Oh Sorry," Sam said as they stopped in the hall. Tucker was just coming up the stairs and he stopped and looked at Danny. He adjusted his glasses like he couldn't believe what he was seeing.

"You're up?" he asked. "You're all better now?"

"Well," Danny said and looked at Sam who raised her eyebrows. "Not really. I'm still separated from myself but I'm okay."

Sam pinched him. "Ouch!" he said then looked at her. She gave him a look that said "tell him!"

"Fine fine fine." Danny said grumpily. "I'm actually overshadowing myself."

Tucker looked at Danny in confusion, then looked at Sam who was nodding her head and looking a little annoyed. "Wait a second." Tucker said. "You're overshadowing yourself?"

"Yup," Danny answered.

"Dude that's totally messed up!" Tucker laughed.

"What's messed up?" Jazz asked as she walked from the room. She looked at Danny and her eyes widened. "Danny! You're up!"

"That's not Danny," Tucker laughed. "It's Danny Phantom. He overshadowed Danny."

"You got away from Dark Dan and Plasmius?" Jazz asked. She was the only one who didn't seem a little weirded out that Danny was overshadowing himself, but then she hadn't been exposed to the ghost fighting business as long as they had. Sam and Tucker looked at each other for a minute then back to Danny.

"Yes." Danny said then shot both Tucker and Sam doubtful looks. "And I think we need to figure out how I'm going to get myself back together." He started down the stairs then froze as he saw Vlad laying on the couch.

"Maddie! Oh Maddie!" he cried in a pitiful voice. "Can you please come fluff up my pillow Maddie?"

"For goodness sakes Vlad," Maddie said as she came striding into the room. "I don't have time for this nonsense!" She fixed his pillow then looked up and saw Danny. "Oh hi Sweetie!"

"Mom!" Danny said as he strode into the room then pointed to Vlad who had Maddie's hand and was pressing it against his face with his eyes closed. "What is he doing here?"

"Stop that!" Maddie said as Vlad started to lick her hand. She grabbed her hand away and started to wipe it on her leg with a look of disgust on her face. "He's here recovering Sweetie. Don't you remember?"

"Uhhh yeah." Danny said then turned and looked at Jazz, Tucker and Sam who were standing on the stairs.

"I heard your Phantom half came back," Maddie said. "Where is he?"

"Ummm well," Danny began then all the sudden the house was rocked.

"Earthquake?" Jazz asked.

"Dan Quake," Tucker answered.

"Maddie!" Jack called from the other room. "He's back and he's trying to break through the shield again." Maddie ran out of the room.

"We need to get me back together!" Danny said urgently as he turned to his friends.

"Back together?" Vlad asked.

"He's overshadowing himself," Tucker answered.

Vlad shook his head. "How sad."

"Couldn't we use the Fenton Ghost Catcher to get him back together?" Tucker asked as he walked the rest of the way into the room. "It worked before."

"You did this before?" Vlad asked in confusion.

"I don't know," Sam said as she ignored Vlad. "He's kinda different this time. I mean last time he separated halfs we got Fun Danny and Super Danny. This time it's like they are the same person."

"I am the same person," Phantom said in an almost hurt tone.

"The Fenton Ghost Catcher probably works different than the Masters Ghost Splitter" Vlad said from the couch. "If your going to put Danny back together then you need to use the Splitter"

"Great," Sam said. "How are we going to get to Vlad's Lab? We can't go through the Ghost Zone."

"I want to be reunited with my ghost half as well!" Vlad demanded. "It's the price I ask for letting you use my splitter."

Danny sighed and the ground shook again. "It's going to take us forever just to get to Vlad's lab. By then Dark Dan will have broke through the shield and we'll be toast."

"Well," Vlad said as he pulled a control from his jacket pocket. "I've just activated my helicopter. It will home in on me and be here shortly. You all can sit here and discuss your plans and wait for that shield to blow or you can go with me to the lab."

Jazz ran to get Jack and Maddie. Danny looked again at Sam and Tucker who were still keeping their distance. "All right," he said as he advanced on them. "What's your problem?"

Tucker and Sam looked at each other. "Well…" Tucker said. "We just remember what you were like last time you were separated and….really your not Danny until you're all together."

Danny looked hurt. "You heard Vlad!" he said. "It's different this time. And I am Danny. There's just more of me."

Tucker and Sam looked at each other then burst out laughing. "More of you to love," they laughed. Vlad rolled his eyes and Danny demanded to know what was so funny.

"It's nothing," Sam said then raised her eyebrows. "Where did your sense of humor go?"

"He's losing it," Vlad said. "Ghosts usually don't have the greatest senses of humor. The longer he stays separated from himself. The less Danny he will become."

"So you don't trust me?" Danny asked almost angrily.

"We're just giving you a hard time," Tucker answered slowly. "Of course we trust you. You're Danny."

Danny looked at Sam, "And you don't…care about me the same way?"

Sam looked uncomfortable for a moment. Firstly she really didn't want to talk about this in front of Vlad. Secondly, Tucker really didn't need to be in on this, and thirdly, she wasn't sure if she did or not.

"Maybe you two love birds need to talk…alone," Tucker suggested as he pushed them up the stairs. He looked at Vlad who was smirking slightly. Sam and Danny obeyed and were ushered upstairs.

"Don't you dare say a word," Tucker said as he pointed at Vlad.

"I wasn't going to say anything," Vlad defended then started laughing. Valerie came into the room at that moment and he shut up. She was still very unhappy with Vlad Masters.

"What is he laughing at," in a tone she might use to ask, what a cockroach was doing laying legs up on the floor.

"He's being a jerk," Tucker answered.

"Mr. and Mrs. Fenton have the shield stabilized again but that guy is hitting on it pretty hard," Valerie said. Tucker took a deep breath.

"Don't worry," Vlad said confidently. "My helicopter will be here long before the shield gives way."

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Sam stopped in the hall and looked at Danny. Only he wasn't really Danny was he? She noticed Jazz's door open a crack and she smiled a little. It was comforting to know she was there if she needed her.

"You don't trust me. Do you?" Phantom asked.

"That's not true," Sam answered. "It's just no matter how much you are the same, your not the same without your human half."

"So you only love my human half?" the ghost asked sadly.

"No," Sam answered. She looked again Jazz's door. "I didn't say that."

"You only love my ghost half?" he asked as he smiled happily.

"I didn't say that either," Sam growled then took him by the arm and lead him into his room. She just couldn't discuss this with Jazz listening in. She thought she could but the blush growing on her face belied that belief.

"Why are you blushing?" Phantom asked. Sam blushed harder. Danny would probably be blushing too much himself to ask such a question. And therein was the difference.

"I'm not blushing!" Sam hissed. Phantom smiled and she gave him a narrow eyed glare. He continued to smile and she conceded that he wasn't going to be intimidated by her.

"So what is it?" he asked then smiled. "You love only me right?"

"No!" Sam said in irritation. "I love both of you." Phantom looked confused. Sam felt confused. How could she explain it? She loved the Danny that was, but that didn't mean she loved Danny as he is now less, or should she say Dannies? But could she love them both the same? Was there an essence in one that was missing in the other? Would she have to chose? She didn't want to be forced into that decision.

"I love the Danny that was before you were separated." She explained softly. "But that doesn't mean I love you any less. It just means that I'm really confused."

Phantom nodded his head in understanding then very slowly, so not to scare her, put his arms around her and held her tight. "If it's any comfort to know," he whispered as she returned the embrace. "We are confused too. But, really I think I love you more than he does."

Sam pulled away and looked at him and he smiled cheesily. "Oh come on," he laughed. "My sense of humor isn't totally gone…yet." Sam smiled hesitantly then jumped as Vlad called from downstairs that the helicopter would be landing shortly.

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	8. Chapter 8

**Major shout outs to Yoyo-illuser! Thanks for the inspiration! The next two chapters are dedicated to you! Hope you likey!**

Chapter Eight

Jack and Maddie reinforced their shield. They hoped it would hold until they could fly to Vlad's lab. Waiting for the helicopter Vlad called seemed to take forever.

"Maddie," Vlad whined. "I need a cookie! Don't you have any more lovely ginger snaps?"

"Her cookies belong to me!" Jack growled as he grabbed Maddie and held her close. Vlad surveyed Jack's considerable girth and raised his eyebrows.

"I think you married Maddie simply because she makes good cookies!" Vlad accused.

"I married Maddie because she totally rocks!" Jack answered as he narrowed his eyes at Vlad. "And she married me cause I rock" He looked around then leaned forward. "And you don't"

"Please!" Vlad said as he smiled flatly.

"Would you two stop it?" Maddie asked as she pushed away from Jack. "You're both ridiculous!"

"See!" Vlad says. "She thinks you're ridiculous!"

Jack laughed. "But she thinks you're a creep!" Vlad's superior expression turned to one of sadness.

Danny sighed and walked to the window and watched Vlad's helicopter land in the street. Sam went to stand near him. "Are you doing all right?" she asked.

"Which one of us?" Danny returned the question.

"Both of you." Sam answered as she leaned against him and he put her arm around her.

"Neither of us are doing so well," he answered. "I'm feeling weaker and his pain is growing, though he can't feel it yet. Honestly, I don't know how long I can keep this up."

Sam frowned worriedly, "Shouldn't he be getting better? Vlad's getting better."

Danny shrugged. "I guess I..um..he put a lot of himself into me trying to hold on. I don't know Sam. I don't have the answers." Tucker walked up and stood on the other side of Danny.

"So what are we going to do if this doesn't work?" Tucker asked.

"It has to work," Danny said. He really hoped it would. It felt strange to be separated from himself.

Valerie came running into the room carrying one of her ghost fighting weapons. "Vlad!" She said. "Look what Jack did! He made a hybrid."

Vlad's face paled as he looked at Valerie. "He what?"

"He modified one of your plasma rays." Valerie said in excitement. "It should be effective against Dark Dan!"

Danny chuckled slightly. "My Dad seems to be good at making hybrids." Sam and Tucker laughed as well and Vlad scowled.

"Hybrids!" Jack declared as he entered the room. "Are my specialty!" Everyone rolled their eyes.

"I hate to interrupt this laugh fest," Vlad said dryly. "But the helicopter is here. We need to go."

"Who's going to stay and keep the shield stabilized?" Jack asked looking worriedly to the other room.

"I'll stay Mr. Fenton," Valerie volunteered. She looked to Tucker but Tucker knew he needed to be with Danny. She gave him a look that said she understood. The room grew silent.

"Well I'm not staying," Vlad said stubbornly. "I think you'll need me there in case something is calibrated wrong. It's my machine. My lab. I'm going!"

"Danny is my son!" Jack growled. "I will stay and protect him!"

"And," Maddie said. "He's my son too. I'm going!"

"Fine!" Jazz said as she threw her arms in the air. "I'll stay." She walked over to Danny and hugged him. "I expect you to be back to normal when you return, otherwise we'll need a long talk about your fractured psyche."

"I'm scared," Danny said in amusement. Jazz gave him a warning look.

"Lets go!" Maddie yelled as she headed out the door.

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Danny, Sam and Tucker sat in the back of the helicopter and listened as Maddie, Jack and Vlad argued about the piloting of the air craft. Finally and predictably, Maddie won the argument and they were off.

They hadn't been off the ground for five minutes when Danny asked. "How long until we reach Vlad's lab?"

"ETA thirty minutes Sweetie," Was Maddie's reply. Vlad turned around in time to see Phantom exiting from Danny who fell back into an unconscious state.

"I'm sorry," Phantom said weakly. "I couldn't stay in there much longer." He looked vaguely transparent and slightly ill."

"It's all right," Sam said as she laid Danny's head in her lap. "You did the best you could." Phantom watched jealously as Sam looked into Danny's sleeping face. He had to suppress the knot of anger growing inside. He was Danny wasn't he? The other one he was just…not Danny but was right?. He closed his eyes.

"We're both the same." He whispered to himself. "I'm Danny. He's Danny. We are one person."

Tucker frowned as he listened to Phantom and watched as he regarded Sam jealously. He sighed heavily, "Love birds." The sooner Danny was merged with his ghost half the better otherwise there were going to be some issues between Danny and Phantom.

Jack, who had been looking out the window. "Your best needs to start getting better." He boomed. "It looks as though we have company. Evasive maneuvers Maddie!"

Vlad yelled, "For goodness sake Jack, use the weapons on him! I should be sitting in the co-pilot seat. The helicopter rocked as it was hit by Dark Dan. Vlad managed to get over to Jack and move him out of the way. "You're a poor shot!"

Vlad began firing on Dark Dan to at the very least, distract him, then Plasimus began to attack. "Be careful!" Phantom warned. "He's weak right now. One shot will probably destroy him." Vlad paused for a moment then sighed and nodded his head in understanding.

It took a lot of effort on Maddie and Vlad's part but they managed to evade Dark Dan and Plasmius until they reached Vlad's mansion. It was upon landing and disembarking from the air craft that things became a little more complicated.

"Maddie!" Jack called as he threw her his hybrid gun. She began shooting at Dark Dan, knocking him off guard several times. The gun seemed to work on him, but mostly it only made him angrier.

Jack carried Danny out of the helicopter and then Sam, Tucker and Phantom followed. Dark Dan caught sight of Phantom and turned to Plasimus and pointed down at them.

"There he is. Once you over take him, you will become the most powerful ghost in existence. They cannot stop you! Go! Plasimus started toward Phantom. Tucker and Sam fruitlessly tried to stand between them. The ghost growled evilly as he grew closer and closer.

Vlad watched for a moment. He had a choice to make and little time to debate. He took a deep breath and fired. It took only one shot. For him, things seemed to move in slow motion as the blast flew. It hit dead center of the ghost. He managed to look at Vlad with a "how could you" expression then shattered into a million pieces, scattering to the wind. Vlad dropped to his knees in anguish. Maddie took the opportunity to shoot at Dark Dan with the Fenton Bazooka and he was sucked back into the Ghost Zone.

"There isn't much time," She said as she grabbed Vlad's arm and pulled him along with them. "He'll come back through your portal. We need to set up the shield.

Instead of simply setting up the Fenton Ghost Shield, Vlad completely shut down his portal. "Not much use for it now," he said in a defeated tone.

"I'm sorry," Phantom whispered in an effort to comfort Vlad as Jack laid Danny on the table and Maddie took a look at the machine that would merge his two halves together.

"Thank you," Vlad answered coolly. "I had little choice in the matter, but I did save your butt."

"Yes," Phantom said. "And I understand completely the sacrifice you made."

"Oh don't go getting all syrupy all over me," Vlad said sourly. "I would never have been able to capture him to put us back together anyway." Vlad sighed heavily and said wistfully, "Besides he had become too evil…perhaps it's a sign that I need to change myself."

"Maybe," Phantom said sadly. Vlad narrowed his eyes at Phantom. "Don't go expecting too much!" Phantom put up his hands and shook his head.

"Ok!" Sam said as she called the Phantom and Vlad over. "What's next?"

Vlad walked over to the machine and pushed Maddie out of the way. "I simply need to recalibrate it." He spent a few minutes fussing with the machine. Suddenly there was a large thumping from above.

"He's baaaaaack," Tucker said as he shielded his head.

"Oh great!" Sam sighed. "He's going to break through the shield."

"Standing by with the Fenton Bazooka," Maddie said. "He shows his ugly face in here, I'll just blast him back to the Ghost Zone."

"It shouldn't be much longer," Vlad called. He pushed a few buttons and the machine hummed to life. "See," he said then the machine rattled then shut down.

"No!" Vlad said and started kicking at it.

"Let me take a look!" Jack said as he walked over. Jack and Vlad stood talking and working for what seemed like hours, but mostly bickering with each other. In the meantime, Danny grew weaker, Phantom seemed go grow more and more transparent and Dark Dan kept pounding away at the shield.

Sam looked at Tucker and found her same scared expression in his face. What would they do if they lost Danny. Was it possible?

"No!" Tucker finally said. "No way is this going to happen." He walked over to Jack and Vlad and started talking "tech" with them. He entered information on his PDA and showed it to them to prove his points, so they moved aside for him to try his hand at getting the splitter up and running.

Sam stood next to Danny as he lay, still unconscious on the table. She tried to fight the waves of sadness which broke over her as she ran her fingers through his dark locks. Tears misted in her eyes as she looked down at the face of the boy she'd cared about for so long. Would she never again see those beautiful blue eyes smiling mischievously at her? She'd gladly go back in time if she could. Back to before he knew of her feelings and the secret love she had tried so desperately to hide. She'd gladly give him up as long as she knew he would live and be happy and…be Danny. Sam wiped a tear from her eye and looked up and met with a pair of burning bright green eyes. She smiled shakily. Phantom reached over to take Sam's hand, to offer some degree of comfort, but he had no substance and he phased right thorough her. He frowned, even now he was robbed of the ability to comfort her. The girl who loved Danny. He was Danny though. Right? But she seemed to love him, the human half so much more. He had watched jealously as she stroked his hair. It was hard to reconcile that Danny and himself were the same person. "Man I feel so confused," he said. Sam smiled wryly and placed her hand lightly up to his face. She couldn't touch him, it was true, but in that instant it felt as though she could. 

Phantom knew that he'd give her up for him, if that's what would make her happy. He wouldn't want to hurt his human half, but it hurt so deeply to think that she preferred him to…himself. He frowned and looked toward Vlad, Jack, Maddie and Tucker as they worked. Hopefully they would get that stupid machine working and all these feelings could be forgotten. Phantom would be Danny. Danny would be Phantom and they both would be loved by Sam. He smiled slightly at the thought then looked back to Sam who was again looking down at his human half. And again, he had to fight back waves of jealousy.

Vlad stepped away from the splitter and flicked on the switch. "All right," he said. "We don't have much time. Let's do this."

"That's an understatement," Maddie said as she checked the equipment. "The shield is about to go down."

Phantom stood in place, floating just over Danny and Vlad started the machine. Sam and Tucker crossed their fingers and Maddie threw Jack a gun and they prepared for Dark Dan to appear when the shield failed.

The Masters Splitter sputtered and hummed then miraculously Danny and Phantom began to merge. It took less than thirty seconds for the Splitter to ding, signaling that transformation was complete. Tucker and Sam ran over to Danny laying on the table.

"Danny!" Sam called trying desperately not to sound as frantic as she felt. "Are you there? Are you okay? Talk to us?" He did not respond.

"Come on Danny!" Tucker said. "If you don't wake up I'm gonna tell Sam about the time you…."

Danny's eyes fluttered open and he turned to Tucker, "Don't you dare!" he said.

"The time he what?" Sam asked as she placed her hands on her hips. Tucker smirked and Danny sat up and gave him a warning look.

"Whoa," Danny said as he put up both hands to hold his head. "Big head ache. Weird memories. Weirder feelings. I don't think I ever want to be split in two again." He jumped off the table. All sensation of pain was gone. He felt one hundred percent better, which was strange considering a moment ago he was split in two and dying in agony.

Danny looked at Jack and Vlad who were still bickering with each other as they were trying to help Maddie keep the shield operational. Vlad restarted the ghost portal hoping it would at least energize the shield.

"We need to figure out how to defeat Dan," Tucker whispered to Danny and Sam.

"He's too strong," Sam said softly as she reached over and took Danny's hand. "Even the gun your dad modified did little damage."

"Every ghost has a weakness." Danny said optimistically as he pulled Sam toward him and put his arm around her waist. "We'll just have to figure out his."

"Oh yeah that's easy," Tucker sighed trying not to smile as he watched Danny and Sam slowly embracing, as if he wouldn't notice as they held each other, their faces showed their happiness and relief. Tucker was happy for them, and happy he hadn't lost one of his best friends.

"Hey I've got an idea!" Tucker said in a move to lighten the mood. "Let's send Jazz to talk to him. She can psychoanalyze him and figure it out for us." Danny and Sam both smiled.

"Well really," Danny said then looked over at his parents and Vlad. He dropped his voice lower. "When you brought up using the ghost catcher. It gave me an idea. Dark Dan is a blend of me and Vlad right?"

"Yeah," Tucker said then laughed. "Hey! It's like if you and Vlad were to have a child you'd end up with Dark Dan."

"That's gross Tucker," Sam said then shuddered. Both Tucker and Danny laughed.

"So anyway," Danny continued. "What would happen if we separated his Phantom half from his Plasimus half?"

"Then we'd get two ghosts?" Sam asked.

"Two extremely weak and vulnerable ghosts," Danny added.

"It's a good idea Danny," Tucker said as he looked over his shoulder. "But I don't see how we're gonna get Dark Dan to go through the Fenton Ghost Catcher. And even then I don't think it would separate the ghost halves."

They didn't get much time to discuss the possibilities of separating Dark Dan's two halves. The shield failed and the time for trying to make plans was over.

"I'm going ghost!" Danny cried as he released Sam. He wasn't sure at first if he could, but he did.

He flew up and around the lab, mostly to test himself. Everything seemed to be working fine. "Everyone hide," He said. "I'm going to have him chase me back through the Ghost Zone. Tucker talk to my dad about the idea."

He flew over to Sam. "I still," He blushed "You know. Even if you…"

Sam rolled her eyes. "Don't be stupid," she laughed. "I love you too." Danny smiled in relief he had some questions for her though, part of him was hurting, as if she had rejected him. Sam shoved something into Danny's hand and said, "For luck!"

Dark Dan burst into the room and she ducked underneath a table. Tucker, having no where to go, pressed himself against the wall.

"So," Dark Dan said. "You destroyed Plasimus and remerged yourself with your ghost half. You are probably thinking you are clever."

"No just smarter than you," Danny said.

"You are a fool!" Dark Dan cried. "If I cannot exist then you cannot exist. I will destroy you."

"You'll have to catch me first," Danny challenged.

Dark Dan laughed. "You think you can run from me Danny? Do you really? Try it. I'll give you a 5 minute head start." Danny knew there would be no head start so he shot though the portal with Dark Dan following close behind.

"That joke is getting really old," Danny said to himself as he flew into the Ghost Zone.

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"Deja vu," Tucker said as he walked to the portal. Sam crawled from under the desk and looked around. Jack and Vlad were still standing by the Splitter. But…where was Maddie?

"Maddie?" Jack called. He walked to where her weapon had fallen.

"He took Maddie?" Vlad asked in confusion. "Why would he take Maddie?"

Tucker pulled out his PDA and began to punch in a bunch of information. Sam sighed and looked at the portal. "Dark Dan," She stared. "A long time ago was once part Danny and part Vlad. What's the one thing they held in common?"

"They love Maddie," Tucker answered in a matter of fact tone, not even bothering to look up from his PDA. Jack and Vlad gave each other looks of disbelief.

"You love Maddie?" Jack asked dumbly. Vlad rolled his eyes and Tucker laughed. Sam shook her head and looked at the portal.

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**I hope you don't feel like resolution to the split Danny thing came to quick and easily. I'm sure there were some interesting things to be explored, but I don't think Danny's human half would have held out long enough to do so hehehe**


	9. Chapter 9

**This chapter is dedicated to Yo yo-illuser Thanks for your terrific input! Thanks for digging me out of the hole. Thanks for making this chapter possible! Whoo hoo! **

**I'm growing a little weary...therefore, I shall take a small break from my frentic posting schedule to recharge my batteries. Should a wave of inspiration hit I'll update, but otherwise I'm going to be taking a short break...Please, in the meantime. REVIEW for me.**

Chapter Nine

Maddie Fenton was angry. Very angry. She cursed and kicked and tried to bite at the being which had a hold on her, but to no avail. He was not about to let her go. She realized that continuing to struggle was going to do nothing but make her tired, so she forced herself to relax.

She watched as they chased Danny, who would circle around and taunt Dark Dan, who in turn would fire a few blasts at him. Danny seemed to evade him with ease, some how he was much faster than this Dark creature. Maddie found herself very proud of her son.

Danny himself was angry. All right, angrier. It was one thing to mess with him, but quite another to mess with his family. He had to be careful when shooting blasts at Dark Dan. The last thing he wanted to do was hit his mother. Dark Dan couldn't have picked a worse person to use against Danny, even though he was relieved it wasn't Sam who Dark Dan had decided to use as bait.

"You have a choice to make," Dark Dan called. "Either give in to your fate or I destroy her!"

Danny circled around a few times. He made brief eye contact with his mother who yelled, "Don't give in to his demands Sweetie."

Danny knew better. He knew that if he gave into Dark Dan's demands that his mother and his entire family and all his friends would be destroyed anyway. This was a stalemate, except Dan held all the cards. "Darn," Danny whispered to himself "I'm mixing metaphors."

"If I surrender," Danny yelled to Dan. "You're just going to destroy her and everyone."

Dark Dan did not deny the fact. He only laughed. "Let me go you filthy creep!" Maddie said as she tried to kick at him. Dark Dan ignored her and flew after Danny who had to be quick to evade him.

"We're at an impasse," Dark Dan said. "A stalemate! I hold all the cards!"

"Your mixing metaphors," Maddie growled in disgust. Danny himself was shocked at Dark Dan's statement as he was thinking the exact thing just moments before. Maybe Dark Dan was like him more than he lead them to believe. Maybe Danny could figure out his weaknesses without the help of Jazz's amateur psychoanalyzation.

Dark Dan sent a blast toward Danny which grazed him and sent him spinning. Danny opened his hand and realized Sam had placed something in them. Now he could remember her pressing something into his hands before Dark Dan attacked. Fenton Phones. The girl was a genius!

Danny flew away from Dark Dan and inserted the Fenton Phones into his ears. "Hello?" he asked. "Can anyone hear me? Danny to anyone!" he waited and had just about given up hope when he heard Jazz's voice.

"Danny?" she asked.

"Yes!" Danny cheered then had to duck from one of Dark Dan's blasts.

"Are you all right?" Jazz asked anxiously.

"Well if you mean am I all together," Danny answered. "Then yes. I'm all right."

Jazz gave a relieved sigh. "So what's the problem now?"

"Oh nothing major," Danny said. "I'm in the Ghost Zone trying to evade this ugly brute and um…save Mom." He tried to say the save mom part quickly.

"Save Mom?" Jazz screeched. "What do you mean save Mom?"

Dark Dan threw another glancing blow at Danny. He needed to get some distance from this guy and try to plan on how he was going to rescue Mom. He could see her in her teal haz-mat suit red goggles, looking pretty ticked off.

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Sam was surprised when her cell phone started ringing. So surprised in fact that she jumped. Tucker gave her a strange look and she blushed a little as she answered.

"Jazz?" She asked. Then did a little dance. "He realized I gave him the Fenton phones!" Sam told Tucker.

"Good!" Tucker said. "But I don't know what good being able to communicate with him is going to do." Tucker turned and looked at Vlad and Jack who were in a pretty intense argument. He couldn't quite get them to listen to Danny's idea about the ghost catcher.

"He wants to talk to Dad," Jazz told Sam. "He says he has an idea on how to stop Dark Dan, but needs Dad to help him."

"Okay," Sam said as she cast a doubtful look toward Jack Fenton who was booming angry insults at Vlad who was poking the larger man in the chest.

"Mr. Fenton!" Sam yelled. "You have a call!" She held up the phone and they ignored her. She looked at Tucker who stepped away and gestured that the task was all hers.

Sam steeled herself and walked up to the two men. She was pretty good at keeping Tucker and Danny in line. Interrupting two angry adults was a little more difficult.

"Excuse me!" she said as stood on her tip toes. Man Jack Fenton was tall…and wide, and just a little intimidating from this close. He looked down at her and she felt like a little mouse. She held up the phone. "It's Danny." She said.

"Thank you Samantha," Jack said as he took the phone. "Excuse me Vlad but I need to have a conversation with MY son." He turned away and started talking. Sam turned and looked at Vlad who was looking back at her expectantly.

"What?" Sam asked. She wasn't about to back down from Vlad. He'd already caused enough damage and anguish. He didn't' deserve to be an intimidator.

"Tell me about the plan you and Mr. Foley are trying to hatch." Vlad said. "I've noticed the two of you whispering over there. And how is it that Danny is on the phone with Jack? The last I checked there weren't any pay phones in the Ghost Zone."

Sam looked at Vlad for a moment. He wasn't the same person anymore. He was no longer a ghost hybrid, but that didn't make him any less dangerous, any less evil, and it certainly didn't make her any more inclined to trust him. On the other hand he did have a great deal of knowledge.

"Is it possible," Sam started hesitantly as she watched Vlad's face. "To make a device that will split the two ghost halves of Dark Dan?"

Vlad's eyebrows furrowed. "I'm not sure. I know how to extract with the beam, but something so broad. I'm not sure. Besides, they would only merge back together quickly."

"But if it's something they flew through," Tucker said as he walked up and join the conversation. "Maybe we could do something before they realized it. Shoot them down. Isolate them. Something."

"Yeeesssss," Vlad said as he caught onto the idea and wheels very obviously started turning in his head. "Very interesting idea." He pulled himself from his thoughts and smiled at Sam and Tucker. "We'll need to start right away."

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Jack Fenton put his hand over his ear so he could hear his son speaking to him from the Fenton phones to the telephone, into the cell phone. The reception was bad.

"How is she?" he asked his son in a softer than normal tone. "He hasn't hurt her has he?"

"No Dad," Danny answered. "She's fine for now."

"Calm cool and collected?" Jack asked.

Danny laughed, "That's Mom. She's definitely defiant." Danny had to duck from a few blasts as he evaded Dark Dan who had managed to maneuver in front of him and fire a few shots.

"So Dad…," Danny started. "I don't know how I'm going to rescue her. He's not going to let her go under any circumstances."

"Don't worry about rescuing your Mother Danny. She's the kind of woman who rescues herself." Jack said in assurance. "Concern yourself with defeating that ghost!"

Danny was glad that his father wasn't worried, but that didn't mean he wasn't. "Listen Dad." He said as he flew far enough away from Dan to ensure he wasn't overheard. "Valerie is on her way through the Ghost Zone in the Speeder. When you get back I need you to start work on something kind of like the Fenton Ghost Catcher. It needs to be able to separate Dark Dan's two halves."

"Oh!" Jack said. "You mean the Fenton Xtractor!"

"Fenton Xtractor?" Danny asked in confusion.

"Yes!" Jack answered excitedly. "It separates a ghost from a human."

Danny would have covered his face with one hand if he could. "Ok Dad great. Wish we'd known that earlier. Can it extract a ghost from a ghost though?"

"It might take a little modification," Jack answered, "But yes. What is your plan?"

"I can't talk any longer Dad," Danny answered as he noticed three ghosts approaching. "We've got a little trouble here. I'll be in contact with you again soon."

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Danny groaned as the three ghosts approached. Technus, Spectra and Bertrand. How did he know he hadn't seen the last of Spectra? He looked to Dark Dan who was regarding them curiously.

"Phantom!" Technus called. "Word in the Zone is that you've been weakened. Word is you're separated from your human half. Word is you're easily destroyed now and we've come for some pay back. Pay back that's long over due. Over due with interest. We plan to take it out of your hide."

Danny snorted in amusement then looked at Dan out of the corner of his eye. He wore an expression of disgusted disbelief. Maddie looked exasperated.

"We've come for our revenge," Spectra added. She looked at Dark Dan and narrowed her eyes. "Whatever your issue is with Danny Phantom," She said. "We get him first."

Dark Dan smiled slyly. "Well," he drawled slowly. "You think he is weakened? Be my guest. Dispatch the…I think you call him, "whelp" for me. This might prove to be a pleasant diversion."

"Oh great," Danny said to himself. "His plan is to tire me out with these three."

"My plan," Dan said to Maddie "Is to tire him out with these three. He can only fight me for so long."

Danny felt a little ill as Technus, Spectra and Betrand advanced on him. He had said that he never wanted to be split in two again, but for the sake of this battle he really wished he had been able to master the technique of multiplying himself, if only to keep a watchful eye on Dark Dan.

Well at least he had the advantage of them thinking he was still separated from his human half. He could catch them off guard. His biggest worry was that Dark Dan would catch on that their thoughts were similar. He'd definitely keep his quips to himself. As hard as that was.

Spectra advanced first, but he shot her with his ectoplasmic blast and she tumbled away. Bertrand shot at him after her and he managed to dodge again. Normally he would have sent a blast in retaliation, only he was trying to second guess himself. Bertrand, encouraged by the difference in Danny shot forward. Danny shot at him as he approached and he swerved away toward Dark Dan who merely raised his eyebrows at the creature.

"If I could just multiply," Danny said to himself and thought hard. "Come on!" Of course this wasn't really the time to try something like this, but it might through Dark Dan off kilter and give him some kind of advantage against the three goons he was currently facing.

It was with a great deal of shock that Danny multiplied himself. One. Two. Three. Wow! He nearly jumped up in down in celebration. One of him did. It wasn't like being separated from his ghost half. It was…different. His three copies flew off to chase Technus, Spectra and Bertrand who were now quite aware that Danny wasn't as weak as they assumed.

Danny turned and looked at Dark Dan. "Well?" he asked.

"What do you want?" Dark Dan asked. "A medal? A gold star?"

"Maybe Sir you could please give me my mother Sir," Danny replied. He was trying to stay out of character but realized how lame he sounded. Dark Dan regarded him with contempt then began to fire blasts at him again. But Danny was now one step ahead of him and moved long before the shot reached him.

**_XxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxX_**

Jack didn't have much time to warn anyone as Valerie in the Specter Speeder flew through the portal and zoomed to a halt. She jumped out of the vehicle and looked around.

"Okay!" She yelled in her tough tone of voice. "I'm here on a rescue mission. Tucker!"

Sam and Tucker looked at each other for a moment. Tucker shrugged his shoulders then jumped up. "Valerie!" he called as he ran forward. Sam grinned mentally storing Tucker's actions for later use.

"Danny sent me," Valerie informed Tucker importantly. "He wants me to take you all back home. Says something about Jack working on his plan.

"Yes," Jack said as he climbed into the Speeder. "We need to get cracking!"

Vlad ran through his lab gathering things together. "I'm going too." He informed them. "Jack is a bumbling idiot! He needs help if this is going to work." Tucker and Sam looked at each other worriedly as Valerie gave her former mentor a look of contempt.

"Jack Fenton is a brilliant man!" Valerie growled. "I'm not going to stand here and listen to you insult him like that Mr. Masters!"

Vlad took a deeply troubled breath then said, "Fine, fine whatever you say Miss Gray." He climbed into the Speeder and waited. Sam and Tucker followed.

Before they knew it they were back at the Fenton Lab. Jazz was waiting anxiously downstairs.

"Did you hear from Danny again?" Jack asked anxiously. "Is your mother free yet?"

"No," Jazz said. She looked at Tucker and Sam for a moment then at the Speeder.

Tucker leaned over and whispered to Sam. "Do you think she wants us to take the Speeder and go into the Ghost Zone?"

Sam looked around. Valerie was now assisting Jack and they were talking ghost while Vlad sat in the corner, tinkering with something. Jazz had gone upstairs declaring that everyone needed lunch.

Tucker stole a look over at Vlad. He was ignoring them. He stole a look at Jack and Valerie, they were laughing about something…which rather disturbed Tucker a little bit. Then they jumped for the Speeder. Ha ha! Jazz had left the power on!

"Should we do this?" Sam asked. "Danny will probably kill us for it."

"Oh yeah!" Tucker answered. "We're doing it!" He gunned the Speeder and they launched into the Ghost Zone.

"Okay Mr. Smartie Pants." Sam said. "How are we going to find Danny?"

Tucker grinned and hit a few buttons. "He has the Fenton Phones. We home in on him that way!" He turned and looked at Sam then paled.

"What?" Sam yelled then turned around and nearly screamed.

"Jazz!" They said together.

Jazz raised her eyebrows at them. "Scared you huh? You two are so easy to predict."

"Stow away," Tucker grumbled as he turned back to the controls for the Speeder.

"Great!" Sam said. "Now Danny's really going to kill us."

"That's if Dark Dan doesn't get to us first." Tucker added.

Jazz shook her head. "Oh yeah it was fine that the two of you sneak off in the Speeder to help him, but when I come along it's a big uh oh! You know I'm part of this team too!"

"You're right," Sam said comfortingly. "We're still so used to it being just the three of us that…."

"We're just not sure how you fit in," Tucker interrupted he rather feared Jazz would take his place as the brains of the operation. He was quite happy with his role. Jazz gave him a smile of understanding.

Jazz adjusted the zipper on her hazmat suit. "Lets just find Danny and see if we can help rescue Mom. We can go over all this team stuff later."

**_XxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxX_**

Danny saw the Speeder approaching and was filled with both anxiety and relief. Dark Dan saw the Speeder approaching and laughed.

"You're not very powerful without your friends are you?" Dan asked. "That makes you weak. That makes them a liability."

"I'll give you a liability!" Maddie said and kicked again at Dark Dan. He laughed at her attempts.

"Maddie Maddie Maddie," He said. "You should just give up trying to fight me. In fact. I suggest you offer some of that same advice to your son."

Maddie eyed the evil ghost for a few moments then said very softly. "Sweetie I advise you to let me go. You can go back into the Ghost Zone and do whatever ghosts like you do. Just do the right thing. Let me go."

Dark Dan gave her an incredulous look. "You're not talking to me are you?" He asked. "I can't imagine that you're actually addressing me as if I'm your son! I killed him a long time ago, and I will do it again!"

"Some part of you is my Danny," Maddie answered. "I see him in your eyes. In your face and in everything you say. You can deny that he exists in you all you'd like. I am the mother of that part of you. Stop acting like a spoiled child and let me go!"

Dark Dan laughed. "You amuse me!" he said then his expression grew deadly and serious. "Were it not for that, I would destroy you now for your impertinence."

"If it weren't for your being a nasty little ghost I'd ground you for yours," Maddie growled. Dan laughed again.

Danny took Maddie's distraction of Dark Dan as an opportunity to communicate with Tucker and Sam. "What are you doing here?" He asked.

"It was Jazz's idea!" Tucker said as he pointed to Jazz who waved out the window at Danny.

Danny put one hand up to his forehead. "Don't listen to him," Jazz said. "He's just trying to place the blame. It was his idea. I just stowed away." Danny smirked and made eye contact with Sam for a brief instant until his attention turned to Dark Dan, who was…genuinely laughing and to his mother who wore a look that he recognized as a, "your in big trouble mister" glare.

"All this stress is turning my hair white," He groaned.

"Aww gee Danny!" Tucker called. "That was like, really lame!" Danny simply shrugged as he circled around Dan who laughed at something Maddie said yet again. He wished he could get close enough to hear them. The next thing he knew the were gone. Dan flew off so fast that Danny wasn't sure which direction they went. He flew cautiously over to the Speeder.

"Where did they go?" Jazz screeched in alarm. "What happened?"

"He was laughing," Danny answered. "Apparently he thought something she said was funny."

"Mom?" Jazz asked. "Funny? I don't think so!" Danny shrugged and looked around. What were they supposed to do next.

"We should head back to your house," Tucker suggested. "This would be the perfect time to regroup." Danny hesitated for a moment then agreed.

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**This is actually sort of a filler chapter. Imagine that!**


	10. Chapter 10

**I always say this, "I'm not going to update for awhile." And then I turn around and update! I know I'm insane. I can't help it. One of these times I'm really not going to update. But you know inspiration comes to me at the last minute. And to those who review, I love each and every one of you. That said….I'm probably not going to update for awhile, for real this time. Busy weekend coming up, my family will not stand for me spending time at the computer. Darn it! **

Chapter Ten

"Where's your mother?" Jack asked as Danny and the other's returned. He looked anxious, even though he was trying to make them believe he wasn't worried.

"She made him laugh," Jazz told her father. "He took off with her and we don't know where!"

Danny sighed and changed from his ghost form. He looked around the lab for a moment then quietly walked upstairs. Tucker and Sam didn't hesitate to follow him. There was no question of leaving him alone to his own thoughts.

It seemed that a Vlad was too busy working on, what ever he was working on to notice the arrival of Danny and the others. He wasn't working on his own however, Valerie wasn't about to let him skulk around Jack's lab. She was supervising what ever it was which he was doing.

Jack shook his head and looked at Jazz. "Guess we'll just have to find her with the homing device in her hazmat suit.", he said softly, almost in defeat.

Jazz blinked at her father. "Homing device?" she asked.

"You all have one." Jack answered flatly. "Your mother sewed them in herself. It was in case we all became separated while ghost hunting." Jack's expression saddened. "I never thought we'd have to use them though."

Jazz sighed and followed him to another corner of the lab, which for some reason had endless little dark corners where endless little projects hid. Jack pressed a few buttons on a keypad then smiled as the device began to beep.

"She's in range," he said happily. "We'll just attach this to the Speeder and we'll be off."

"We?" Jazz asked. "Where are we going?"

"To get your mother of course," Jack answered. "I'm not going to let this knave of a ghost take off with her!" He jumped into the speeder. "I'm just going to upgrade some of these weapons."

"Shouldn't we go get Danny?" Jazz asked. "I mean he's more equipped to fight ghosts than we are."

"Of course," Jack muttered absently. "Go get Danny. Wouldn't leave without him. This is now a family matter. You mess with one Fenton, you mess with all the Fentons."

Jazz grinned as she leaned into the Speeder to watch her father work. "All of the Fentons?" She asked. "Want me to call Gran…"

Jack held up his wrench. "No!" he said. "No need for everyone to get involved in this. Especially those who think we are…you know…." Jack spun his finger in a circle on the side of his head.

"Mmmm," Jazz said as she nodded her head in understanding. "Yeah, cause it's not like anyone in our family is errmmm crazy or anything." Jack raised one eyebrow as he surveyed his daughter. She smiled and he went back to work.

**XxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxX**

Danny sighed as he sat down at the kitchen table. He was hungry. So was Tucker and presumably Sam. Tucker was of course going through the refrigerator.

"Ha!" he said. "Meatloaf! I knew it." He threw Sam a bag of salad and she smiled at him gratefully. It wasn't long before the group was eating. Quietly.

"All right," Tucker said. "Someone here has to break the silence. What are we going to do?"

"I don't know," Danny answered. "I know I can't beat him. I don't know how much longer he's going to play with us all. He's got my mom but she seems to be reaching him." Danny shrugged.

"You said he thinks a lot like you do." Sam said. "Maybe we can second guess what he's going to do and counteract that."

"He says sarcastic things like I do," Danny replied. "There's a big difference between words and actions."

"Our only hope is separating his ghost halves," Tucker said softly. "But he's been one ghost for so long, what if it's impossible to pull them apart?"

Danny sighed. He looked at Sam who was looking down at her salad. She looked up at him. "What?" she asked. He shook his head and began picking at the meatloaf sandwich Tucker had made for him.

Tucker rolled his eyes and took himself and a few more sandwiches downstairs while excusing himself by saying other people might be hungry.

Danny and Sam sat in uncomfortable silence for sometime before Sam finally sighed and gave in. "Okay Danny." She said as she narrowed her eyes at him. "Start talking."

She was surprised with how quick he asked. "Are you glad that my ghost half and I have merged back together?"

"Of course!" Sam answered. "Don't be silly Danny."

"I have memories of it all you know," Danny told her. "I know everything that Phantom was feeling while we were separate."

Sam leaned on her arm and watched Danny as he kept his eyes on the food he was playing with . "I can hardly be held accountable for what he was feeling you know," she said.

Danny looked up at her and smiled. "I know. It's just hard he hated me there for awhile."

Sam shifted in her chair uncomfortably for a moment. "Don't you mean you hated yourself for a little while there?"

Danny laughed half heartedly then looked back down at his plate. "I'm just trying to understand that ghost half of me. Being with out it. Being with it again. I was thinking back to the timeline Clockwork stopped. The one where Dark Dan came into existence and I was just wondering how that was possible."

Sam shrugged. "You know your ghost half better than I do. He didn't seem to be very happy at being separated from you in the first place. Like you told me before, you betrayed your ghost half by trying to rid yourself of it. It became angry and, well, we all know how the story goes."

"Yeah," Danny said still having trouble reconciling himself with his ghost half and his ability to become such an evil being.

"You know what Danny," Sam said in exasperation. She wondered why Danny was allowing himself to stew in all this negativity and worry. "You made us all a promise that you'd never turn into Dark Dan. I believed you then. I believe you now. Tucker and I trust you with our lives. Your ghost half can only turn evil if you let it. So don't let it." She shrugged her shoulders then stood and put her dishes in the sink.

Danny smiled as he watched Sam cleaning up the mess Tucker had made. "Besides," Sam continued. "There are more important things to worry about than the problems you were having with your ghostly side." She turned and looked at him and leaned back against the kitchen counter. He just smiled.

"What?" she asked. "Why are you looking at me with that weird goofy expression."

"Because you," Danny answered excitedly. "Have just given me a great idea!" He stood and ran down toward the basement.

Sam stood up straight and called. "What did I say?" She called after him but he was gone. "Gee," said to herself as she walked down the stairs. "You'd think it'd be too much bother to clue me in?"

**_XxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxX_**

Danny rushed down stairs then stopped. Who would he talk to first? Vlad or Dad? He looked at his father and Jazz working happily on the speeder then at Vlad in the corner. Vlad seemed to be instructing Valerie on the mechanics of some device, Tucker was watching over her shoulder. Danny hoped it was the device he thought it was, seeing how Jack was now distracted.

"Vlad," Danny asked. "Is that?"

Vlad looked up and gave Danny a look of annoyance. "Yes yes and yes," he said. "And then some." He smiled his smarmy smile and went back to work. Valerie shook her head and Danny pulled Tucker aside.

"What is he doing?" Danny asked.

Valerie looked at Danny, "He's modifying some gadget of your father's."

"When operational," Vlad said softly. "It will stretch over the portal. Any ghost flying throw the portal will fly through it and be caught. Additionally any two part ghosts, such as yourself and Dark Dan will be separated. And of course caught in the net and unable to merge." Vlad banged on it. "But I can't get a few things right!"

"Whoa there!" Valerie said as she pulled away the electronic pieces from Vlad. "Don't break it Mr. Short Fuse! I really think you should wait for Mr. Fenton."

"Wait for Mr. Fenton," Vlad mocked. He looked at Danny. "You're Father is too busy trying to plan the fruitless rescues mission of your mother."

Danny sighed and walked over to the Speeder where Jazz and Jack were speaking in low tones. Jazz moved over so Danny could enter the Speeder.

"Glad you're here Danny," Jack said in his usual booming voice. "I've just about got these modifications complete! Then we can go get your mother."

"Dad," Danny said almost timidly. "I need you to focus your attention elsewhere. I don't trust Vlad and he's working on something and…."

Jack raised an eyebrow at his son. "And you need me to make sure he's not doing anything sneaky?"

"Yes," Danny answered. "I need you to stay here and keep him in line. I have a plan to rescue Mom."

Jack took an irritated breath then looked toward Vlad. "I have a good mind to crush that evil little weasel between this thumb and this index finger," he said angrily.

"Well Dad that's great," Danny said wondering how Mom managed to keep him focused. "But how about after we get Mom back?"

"Your Mother?" Jack asked. "She'll be fine Danny. Don't worry about a thing."

Danny looked at Jazz who was making a twirling motion with her finger on the side of her head. It was true. Jack Fenton was totally lost without Maddie.

"I'll take care of Dad," Jazz said. "Just tell me what's going on over there." She pointed over to Vlad. Danny filled Jazz in on what was necessary then walked over to Sam who was standing in front of the portal.

"Ok Mr. Big Shot," She said as she kept her arms folded in front of herself. "What's your big plan?"

Danny looked at Sam for a moment as if he were trying to calculate her reaction to his plan. He took a deep breath and just went for it. "I'm going to convince Dark Dan that I'm willing to join him. That I'm willing to give up my humanity and be like him."

"Oh yeah like that will work," Sam scoffed. "He's not going to believe you!"

"I think he will," Danny said. "Because he wants too. He's lonely. Filled with hatred and anger. I'd be the same way if things weren't different now and I lost all of you."

Sam looked over her shoulder at Jack, Tucker, Valerie, Jazz and Vlad. "Same here," said Sam. She looked at Danny. "I mean I'd be pretty crushed if something happened to all of you."

"All of me?" Danny asked. Sam only nodded her head. Danny grinned.

"See. You give me strength and courage," he said. "We can get through anything." He put his arm around Sam and she leaned into him.

"You're going alone though aren't you?" she asked sadly. "Because he'd never believe it if we came with you."

"Yeah," Danny answered. He felt a little scared at the thought of going into a battle like this without back up. But he also felt better knowing his friends and family were going to be out of harm's way.

Sam felt tired. The last hours had felt like days and weeks. She supposed she had her own dark side to fight and her own inner demons to wrestle. Part of her wanted to run home screaming to make all this stop. She wanted to hide under her covers until Danny came knocking on her door telling her everything was fixed and they'd never have to fight evil like Dark Dan again. She never wanted to see Danny in pain like she had today. She never wanted to see him separated from his ghost half again either. All she wanted to do was for all of them to just go back to being carefree kids. Of course they'd never be able to go back and Sam knew she'd never abandon Danny, even if she didn't love him as much as she did. But she was scared. So much for loving someone deeply giving you courage. She turned and smiled at Danny who was looking at her uncertainly.

"When are you going to go?" she asked.

"Soon," Danny answered.

Sam bit her lip. "And when will you be back?"

"I don't know," Danny whispered as he looked over his shoulder again. "Who knows I might not make it back."

Sam continued to look into the ghost portal. She didn't want to look at Danny in case he saw her tears. "Oh darn," She tried to say in a humorous tone, "And I was just getting attached to you and all."

Danny snorted in half laughter then turned Sam to face him. She looked down at his shirt and berated herself for stewing in her own negativity when she'd just finished thinking that Danny dwelled on his too much. Danny lifted her chin and made her look at him.

"It's all going to work out!" Danny said as he looked into her eyes. "I promise!"

"And you can make that kind of promise why?" Sam asked.

"Because I'm the hero," Danny answered then kissed her.

**_XxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxX_**

Danny walked over to Jazz and put his arm around her. She let him lead her across the room where he told her his plan. She voiced her objections and tried to call on Sam to back her up and talk some sense into Danny. But Sam was on Danny's side. She wanted to be on Jazz's side. She wanted to beg Danny not to go, but she knew nothing was going to stop him and it was better that he felt he had some support rather than people second guessing his judgment.

Jazz went to the Speeder and retrieved the homing device and explained one was sewn into all their hazmat suits. Danny laughed then thanked Jazz.

"Be careful Danny," Jazz said softly as she hugged her brother.

"I will be," Danny said. "Just keep a good eye on Sam and Tuck. Don't let them come after me." Danny didn't quite trust the gleam in Jazz's eyes. "Don't you either."

"Party pooper," Jazz pouted. Danny turned back to Sam and hugged her tight. He took a deep breath and then was gone.

Sam turned to Jazz who wasn't quite sure what to expect. She could see strength and hope in the younger girl's face and Jazz wished she could borrow those feelings and that utter belief that Danny was going to succeed no matter what, because she was afraid, more afraid than she'd ever been in her life.

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**Sorry guys, just another filler chapter. I hope you don't mind it. I just needed to adjust my direction a little bit.**


	11. Chapter 11

**OOC warning here. Jack and Maddie have been SERIOUSLY falling OOC in this story. Frankly, it's only because they're not really that developed in the show. This story calls for a more in depth look at Danny's parents and that's why they are different. I'm trying to keep key characteristics the same, but…it's just not possible to keep them as such shallow undeveloped characters at this point. Please forgive me. I'll do my best to keep them on track.**

**I've also been struggling quite hard with this chapter. I, the person who never does re-writes, has erased this chapter three times and did a complete cold re-write. Four times is too many, so this is how it stands. I appologise if this chapter isn't good. I hope you will forgive me and continue reading...  
**

Chapter 11

Maddie Fenton felt confused as Dark Dan laughed and flew off with her in tow. She knew something she had said set him off but, she wasn't sure what it was. This creature, even for all its few similarities, was not her Danny. Or was it? Was some part of him left in this pitiful creature?

Dark Dan stopped and let go of Maddie. There wasn't anywhere she could run. So she just looked at him and waited. Either he was going to kill her or not. She was prepared for either decision. Of course she was scared, but Maddie Fenton's creed was to show no fear, so she faced him defiantly.

"So," Dark Dan said slowly as he turned on her his face closer to hers. "Do you think there is some part of your boy left in me? Do you think it's possible that ten years of anguish and sorrow and emptiness have not burned away all traces of your precious son?"

"I'm not going to stand here and have some sort of heart to heart with you about the inner workings of your twisted little soul." Maddie told him angrily as she folded her arms across her chest and attempted to turn away.

Dark Dan laughed again. "Oh Mom," he said, then asked, "Can I call you Mom?" Maddie only stared blankly at him. "I like you," he continued. "You and I are going to have a little more of a chat before I dispatch you all together. Maybe I'll wait for your family to arrive before I kill you."

"What ever you do," Maddie said as she floated fruitlessly in the ether of the Ghost Zone. "There is nothing I can do about it. I won't fight with you."

Dark Dan eyed her for a moment. "How long ago did your Danny tell you his secret?" He asked. "You obviously know."

"I've known for awhile," She answered flatly. "But he told me recently."

"And you accepted him?" Dark Dan asked in disbelief.

"Of course I did!" Maddie said. "I'm his mother. There is absolutely nothing he could do that could change that, or the love I feel for him."

Dark Dan floated around her, thinking. "And what if he did something very bad? What if he caused your death? What if he caused the death of everything and everyone you love? What if he committed acts of unspeakable horror?"

Maddie looked into Dark Dan's expressionless face. She was glad for the time she had with Danny, and glad he had taken the time with her and Jack to explain everything he could about Dark Dan and who he was. She knew Danny well enough to understand what the creature had gone through at the loss of his family and her heart felt very deeply for him, but she didn't know this ghost side so well or how it worked. She didn't know if there was any spark of her son left in this creature which called itself by his name. She had met Danny's ghost half while they was separated before and loved him not an ounce less than his human half, she saw no difference between the two. But, this creature she did not know or understand, because so much of the boy she knew was gone.

"Well?" Dark Dan asked forcefully. Beginning to feel frustrated. The tingling of emotional sensation, which Maddie's treating him as her son had caused, had begun to fade and he wanted it back, even though it hurt. It was like a little splinter in his hand, he couldn't resist worrying, even if it made him hurt and bleed.

Maddie took a deep breath and whispered so softly that Dark Dan had to move ever closer to hear her, "Soren Kierkegaard once said, 'Never cease loving a person, and never give up hope for him, for even the prodigal son who had fallen most low, could still be saved; the bitterest of enemy and also he who was your friend could again be your friend; love that has grown cold can kindle.' I would never stop loving my son. If there is an inkling of him in you, there you will also find my love."

Dan moved away from Maddie wearing such an expression of hatred that her façade of courage slipped and her eyes betrayed her fear for the first time. Surly now he was going to strike her dead. Her only thoughts were of Jack, Jazz and Danny. She was sure her children could go on fine without her, but she worried for Jack. She closed her eyes and prepared herself for the blow soon to follow his roar of anger or was it anguish? She waited…and waited. And when finally she opened her eyes resolute in facing her fate, Maddie found that he had gone. She floated alone in the shifting formlessness of the Ghost Zone.

**XxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxX**

Danny stopped as he saw his mother floating. Alone. She was using a swimming motion to try to move, inch by inch. He smiled slightly, then wondered where Dark Dan was. There was no way that Danny was going to buy for an instant that rescuing his mother was going to be that easy. Nothing had been so far.

He had just about reached her when a blast hit him and he went flying. Danny just barely managed to reorient himself when another blast hit, and another and another. It took a great deal of effort but little by little he began evading shots and again came face to face with the one who had been haunting his nightmares for months. Dark Dan.

"Little Daniel Fenton," Dark Dan said as he smirked. "Back to rescue his mommy from the big bad monster."

"Just let her go," Danny ordered angrily. "You're problem isn't with her. It's with me."

"My problem," Dark Dan drawled in his extremely slow and sinister tone. "Is with the whole world."

"Great," Danny said as he shot a few blasts at Dark Dan dodged them with little effort. "Well since the whole world can't be here, your problem is with me."

"Why should you have everything?" Dark Dan asked angrily as he shot blast after blast. "Why should you have the happiness, the contentment, the life! While I had to languish in misery and darkness? I'm going to make you feel what I felt. I'm going to make you watch me take them away from you. One by one."

Danny forced himself to still his fears He watched Dark Dan stop his attack and circle around to the other side of Maddie. Danny knew if he moved toward her, she'd be gone. So he stayed where he was and watched.

"Is there anything I can do to spare her?" Danny asked in the most emotionless tone he could muster.

Dark Dan laughed and laughed and laughed then said, "No."

"What if I give up?" Danny asked. "If I let you do to me what you will?"

"No!" Maddie yelled. "Sweetie it's not worth it."

"But it is," Dark Dan said. "It would hurt wouldn't it Mom? Losing your son. I can take him away from you. Leave you to live just as he lives, just as I live, in the deep pit of agonizing despair. You would grow to hate him then Maddie, I promise. Because he's willing to do this to you. To himself. Yes, you will grow to hate him."

"Never." Maddie whispered her voice shaking for the first time.

"I think we may have a deal," Dark Dan said slowly. "If you care to follow me to the old man's lab, we can get to work." Danny didn't dare look at his mother for fear his resolution to carry through with this plan would fail.

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Jazz watched with everyone else as Vlad worked. Valerie treated him cruelly, she didn't seem the forgiving type. Tucker and Sam treated him with indifference but Jazz watched his face. He was hiding pain of his own. Had he recovered from the ghost half being torn from him? Or was he just playing at being all right? Was he mourning the loss of his ghost half, the one he destroyed with his own hands? If so his stoic facial expressions betrayed nothing.

Jack had shifted from being angry at Vlad back to his generally good natured self, if not anxious. He sat next to Vlad and they were both soldering wires together onto a green electrical panel as they reminisced about their college days, which caused frequent bouts of booming laughter from Jack. Valerie continued to watch him like a hawk, determined that he had some plan and was up to no good. Sam and Tucker were sitting on the floor with their backs leaning against the speeder. They were deep in a conversation Jazz didn't feel like she would be welcomed into. She sighed then started upstairs. Something stopped her and she turned and looked at the portal. She gripped the stair rail so hard her knuckles turned white. Her knees went weak so she sat down. Tucker and Sam jumped up and ran to her.

"Mom," Jazz said as she leaned into Sam who immediately sat beside her. "Danny. What if they don't come back?" Sam looked over to Tucker who was clutching on to his PDA as if for comfort. Someone had to say something. They couldn't let Jazz fall into hysteria.

"Jazz," Sam said then looked again to Tucker for help.

"It's going to be all right," Tucker said. "When has Danny ever failed?"

"He failed his vocabulary test!" Jazz cried as if failing a test in school was relevant in this situation.

"I think we need to do something," Sam said. "Find Clockwork. Doesn't he know what's going on? Why hasn't he done something to stop it like he did before?"

"He's testing Danny," Tucker said. "That's the only explanation."

Jazz took several deep breaths. "Okay," She said. "I'm okay now." She stood and continued up the stairs. Tucker and Sam watched her go then started back toward the Speeder. Tucker turned and looked back toward the stairs.

"Sam," he said sadly. "I don't think it's a good idea to leave her alone."

Sam hesitated. She really didn't want to leave the lab. What if Danny returned? She wanted to be there when he did. She needed to know he was all right, and sitting upstairs away from the portal would do nothing more than make her more anxious.

"You go to her Tuck," Sam said. "I don't think I'd be that great of a help right now." Tucker looked at Sam a moment then debated with himself about who needed comfort more. Sam or Jazz. He knew Sam was strong and held to the belief that Danny was going to be fine. He took a deep breath and headed upstairs and out of the lab, to keep Jazz company.

Sam watched him go then looked at Valerie she was in the thick of things with Jack and Vlad at the moment as Jack was instructing them via some wires about the mechanical workings of his device and what he needed to get it working. She bit her lip. Part of her was tempted to jump in the Speeder and go find Danny. The rational part of her knew it would only make things harder for him. She sat back down with her back against the side of the vehicle, and waited. She really hated waiting.

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Dark Dan laughed as he forced Danny to change back to his human form and tied him against the wall with ectoplasmic bands. He promised that if Danny dared to go ghost that Maddie would be toast.

"Rhyming?" Danny asked. Dark Dan had no sense of humor, well no regular sense of humor. He only looked at Danny in disgust. He seemed not to fear much from Maddie and let her wander around the lab at will. He kept his eyes on her, so she didn't have much opportunity to do much at all.

Danny wondered what was next. If Dan was going to keep him here in Vlad's lab and subject him to a creepy staring match for the rest of his life. He watched the Dark creature for awhile, then his eyes lit on the D on his chest. The one tangible thing they had in common. Why was Dark Dan still wearing the logo Sam had made?

Maddie had taken off the hood of her hazmat suit and seemed to be fiddling with her goggles. Dan was watching her untrustingly. Danny wondered if distracting him would allow his mother to either escape or strike against Dan. Danny hoped it was escape. He took a deep breath.

"Dan!" he said in a challenging tone of voice. The creature turned his horrible eyes back to Danny. "Why do you still wear the D Sam made?"

Dark Dan put his hand to his chest and looked back at Danny and smiled his slow sinister smile. "It's a reminder," he answered. "Of what a futile effort life is. You see I once knew this girl, who put so much effort into me and then poof gone. All her work was for nothing."

"It doesn't look as though her work was for nothing. You still honor her," Danny said as he gestured to the Danny Phantom symbol.

"Yes," Dan said as he narrowed his eyes and floated closer to Danny. "But she did not stop me when she had the chance did she? And now even memories of her cannot stop me from my course." His eyes began to gleam with evil thought.

"I remember things about this Sam," he said as if realizing something very important. "You harbor deep feelings for the girl. She is important to your existence." Dan laughed. "You should never have brought up her name Danny. Never."

Dark Dan grabbed Maddie and secured her against the wall. He looked at Danny for a moment his expression filled with evil glee then he transformed himself into the likeness of Danny Phantom. He said nothing as he fled through the ghost portal, laughing as he went.

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Sam felt she was about to doze off when Danny came flying through the portal. He said nothing as he flew up to her and grabbed her hand.

"Hurry," He said. "I need your help." Sam stood and followed him without hesitation. The group working at the table looked up, but before they could say anything Danny and Sam were gone.

"Where did he take her?" Valerie asked in confusion. Jack shrugged his shoulders and looked to Vlad who was shaking his head as he focused his attention back down to his work.

"I heartily doubt that was Daniel," Vlad said as he continued working on the device. He was close to being finished. "I think we've just seen Samantha taken by the enemy."

"And we didn't do anything?" Valerie said in outrage. "And how would you know anyway?"

Vlad looked at her with a defeated expression. "I have been around ghosts long enough that I don't need powers to distinguish one being from another. That was not Danny. What would you have us do Miss Grey? What power do we have over the likes of that creature?"

Valerie growled something under her breath then walked away. "I'm going upstairs," She finally said out loud.

Jack watched her go then quietly went back to his work. Vlad said nothing as well. He felt it was better the child was finally out of his hair. Now he could really pick Jack's brain and get to work without interference .

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"Danny where are we going?" Sam asked as they flew through the Ghost Zone.

"It's a surprise," Danny said. Sam squeezed his hand and he faltered a little.

"You rescued your Mom?" She asked as she looked into Danny's face. "Why didn't you bring her back? Where is Dark Dan?"

"Vlad's lab," Danny answered. "Everything is back at Vlad's lab." Sam swallowed back a gasp of fear and wondered why she didn't realize earlier that this wasn't Danny.

Dark Dan, disguised as Danny flew through the portal and presented Danny to Sam. If he was expecting her to cry out in fear or react in any way but happiness for seeing Danny he was sorely disappointed.

"Hey Danny!" Sam said cheerfully. "It's good to see you." Danny himself was a little surprised at her reaction. Dark Dan affixed Sam to the wall next to Danny just out of range so they couldn't touch and surveyed them angrily.

"So there you have her Daniel. Your little girlfriend to participate in your destruction." He waited for their reply as if he'd said something clever. Danny and Sam just looked at each other for a moment then back at Dark Dan.

"No denial?" Dan said, mostly to himself. "No blushes?" He eyed them again. Sam was watching him wide eyed and Danny looked back angrily. Could it be that these two made it past the barriers of their embarrassment and began to build a relationship deeper than friendship? Dark Dan burned inside and his hatred for Danny grew deeper. Everything that had been denied to him, when he lost his friends and his family, this alternate version of him held. He would not allow this to be! He grabbed Sam off the wall and held her by the throat.

"Let her go!" Danny yelled as he struggled to release himself.

"Should I kill her now?" Dark Dan asked slowly. "Or should I wait and use her to push you over the edge into madness?" He stared into Sam Manson's frightened eyes then put her down. Once on the floor and free of Dark Dan she stepped away from him until she was against the wall. She looked at Danny who was looking back at Dark Dan. His eyes were simmering green with anger.

"Sam Sweetie," Maddie said slowly. Sam turned and looked at Maddie Fenton. Maddie looked Sam in the eyes then over to a distant counter where something which looked a great deal like the Specter Deflector lay. Sam followed Maddie's line of vision then swallowed hard and took a few steps to the left and a few more then a few more.

"Why," Dark Dan said in anger. "Should you have these things?" He advanced on Danny. "Why should you have such happiness and be the recipient of such love and devotion?"

"Because I made the right decisions!" Danny yelled at him. "Because I'm not you! Because I'm not so stupid as to let go of my ghost half! Why do you think?"

"Danny, I don't think yelling at him is going to help you much," Maddie warned.

"Shut up Mom!" Danny and Dark Dan said together.

"She's my mother!" Danny growled. "Don't you dare try to delude yourself into thinking that some part of you belongs to her in anyway!"

Dark Dan laughed. Then flew over to Maddie. "He doesn't understand. Does he. Mom?" Maddie said nothing.

"No wise philosophies for me now….Mom?" Dark Dan asked. "No words to try to reach my stone cold heart? No tender emotions to sooth the savage beast?"

Sam stood looking at the Specter Deflector, or a reasonable version of it. She wasn't sure what she was supposed to do with it. Should she use it on herself to keep herself fairly safe from Dark Dan or should she put it on Maddie? Placing it on Danny would be a big mistake. Then it dawned on her. She needed to put the belt on Dark Dan. Then they might have enough time to escape. She looked at Danny but his attention was on Dark Dan. She slipped toward him slowly. Her heart was racing so fast and so hard she was afraid that Dark Dan would hear her as she gradually snuck up on him.

Dark Dan laughed at the expression of anger on Danny's face, but he was beginning to tire of this game and his prey had stopped playing in a way which amused him. He was preparing himself to strike a blow to Danny, to end this game once and for all when he felt someone reach around him.

Sam clipped the Specter Deflector around Dark Dan. He flung his arm around and knocked her flying across the room. Danny transformed into ghost form and ripped himself out of the ectoplasmic bonds then freed his mother. Held her arm as he rushed across the lab, picked up Sam and then flew out of the portal. He knew there wasn't going to be much time. Dark Dan was going to free himself from the Specter Deflector quickly, so he moved as fast as he could through the Ghost Zone toward home, carrying his mother who was yelling in jubilation and Sam, who was knocked out.

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**Okay. I am very unhappy with this chapter. But I think trying to rewrite it again would be a mistake. We'll continue on. And I say this…again. It might be awhile before I can update…there is NO way Chapter 12 is coming out tomorrow….I know you don't believe me, but so it goes.**


	12. Chapter 12

**Hi. Here I am again. I am seriously addicted to this story. I can't stop writing. So at my own peril, I present to you an update, even when I said I wasn't going to update. This time I SWEAR that an update won't be coming tomorrow (unless I'm inspired).  
**

**Whoa there hold up a minute! Is that a twelve I see? This is chapter 12? How in the world did that happen? I only intended this story to go 8 maybe 9 chapters! Oh dear! Well, I think things are going to be wrapped up here soon…I think. I'm not writing a novel after all. But guess what? Sort of another filler chapter! AGGHH!**

Chapter Twelve

Danny shot out of a portal and into the Ghost Zone for what seemed the millionth time that day. This time he had a firm grip on his mother with one hand and carried an unconscious Sam half slung over his shoulder. There was no time to stop and resituate her into a more comfortable hold. He needed to get as far away from Vlad's lab as possible.

"Danny Sweetie," Maddie asked as they flew. "Where are we going?"

"Anywhere but here Mom," answered Danny. He didn't look behind as he flew. To tell the truth, he was afraid to look behind him. He feared that Dark Dan was close. For a few moments as he continued to zoom through the Zone, he wished that Vlad were still his only enemy. He could handle Vlad. But Dark Dan showed no mercy. He had no humanity.

Sam began to stir and he adjusted her into a more comfortable position as she looked around blearily. "Wow," she said. "Where did the headache come from?"

"Glad you're awake Sam," Maddie told the girl. "I was becoming quite concerned for you."

Sam couldn't get her bearings as they continued to fly. She only looked at Maddie with unfocused eyes wondering why the world was spinning. She laughed a little then rested her head on Danny's shoulder.

"Way to woo a girl, Fenton," She said softly. "What are we going to do on our next date? I think the movies are going to be a little tame after all of this."

"Date?" Danny asked in surprise. "Oh yeah Sam your brains are defiantly scrambled." She laughed and he held her tighter. Maddie was able to turn so she could see behind them. Were they being followed? No. At least not at the moment.

"Do you think he'll head back to the lab?" Maddie asked.

Danny frowned. He wished they could have warned everyone, but he figured the Fenton Lab was the first place Dan would expect them to go, so it was safer to stay away, at least until they had a game plan.

Danny stopped as a great green door appeared in front of him and opened. He paused a moment and wondered if he should go in. There weren't any other options and he couldn't fly forever. So in they went.

"It looks like a castle," Maddie said wonderingly as she looked around the round grey brick room.

"Or a tower room," Danny added as he pointed to the curtained arched window. Maddie let go of him and walked across the stone floor and looked out through the curtains.

"Just more Ghost Zone," She said then put her hands on her hips and looked around. "Who do you suppose this…er…room? Is it a room? Belongs to?"

Danny smiled slightly as he put Sam down, still holding her in the event she couldn't stand on her own. She slapped away his hands in irritation then walked across the room with her hand on the side of her head. "I'm not sure," Danny answered his mother. "But, I have a good idea of who it might belong to."

"The princess," Sam said as she walked to the dressing table in the corner and touched the green and gold Amulet of Eragon. "She seems to be coming to our rescue a lot lately. I wonder why."

"She has a crush on Tucker," Danny said as he laughed.

"Who is this Princess?" Maddie asked as she looked at the books on the bookshelf. They all seemed to be written in jibberish. Danny explained quickly about the princess and first time they met her, and about the amulet which could turn her into a dragon. He related how Vlad had used her to overshadow Sam and make Danny think she and Tucker were involved with each other, then how she saved Sam's life and was obsessed with dancing.

"She came to our rescue again after you were separated from your ghost half," Sam said as she sat down in a green glowing chair and bent forward, cradling her head.

"Why would she be helping you?" Maddie asked.

Danny shrugged. "The only thing I can figure is that she likes Tucker. She seems to be a little bit obsessed with him almost as much as she is with dancing at balls."

Sam snorted. "Only a little bit. But, Tucker thinks Clockwork may have sent her to watch over us. He thinks all of this is a test."

"A test?" Maddie shrieked. "What kind of test and why? What kind of monster is this ghost Clockwork that he would place people in such danger?"

Danny laughed. "He's better than most." He then explained to his mother exactly what Clockwork was and what he did. She still wasn't impressed and threatened destruction upon him should he ever dare to show his face.

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Valerie rushed upstairs in the Fenton house, then stopped in her tracks as she saw Tucker sitting beside Jazz. She was leaning forward with her head in her hands. Tucker had his hand on her back. Valerie narrowed her eyes and went into the situation as she entered every situation, on the attack.

"What's going on here?" she asked with her hands on her hips. Tucker nearly jumped out of his skin and Jazz lifted her head to look up. Her eyes were red with tears and Valerie's heart softened.

"Jazz and I were talking about Danny and Maddie," Tucker explained as he blushed. "Jazz is worried."

"Yeah," Valerie said. "So am I, but ummm I hate to be the bearer of more bad news but…"

"No!" Jazz said as she stood. "I don't want to hear another bad thing. I'm going up to my room and I'm hiding under my covers and I'm staying there!"

Tucker grabbed her hand and stopped her. "Dude, you can't," he said. "Hiding isn't going to help or make things go away. Stay and face this Jazz. You're a Fenton, you can't run away like a coward." Jazz sighed and gave him an angry look.

Valerie waited a moment then relayed her news about Sam. "Vlad said it wasn't Danny. I'm thinking we need to go on a rescue mission. This is getting out of hand Danny's going to need our help."

"No," Jazz said as she shook her head. "Danny made me promise that I wouldn't let you guys go after him."

"Technically," Tucker said as he held up one finger "You promised that you, Sam and I wouldn't go after him. He never said Valerie couldn't."

Jazz's eyes lit up. "That's true. He said nothing about not letting Valerie go after him."

"And I'm taking you guys hostage. At gun point." Valerie said then pointed down the stairs. "Get going. Now!"

Vlad and Jack watched as Jazz, Tucker and Valerie ran down the stairs and loaded to the Speeder. Jazz stopped in the door of the vehicle and looked back.

"Bye Dad," She said as she waved. "We'll be safe." She closed the door behind her and the vehicle started and then they were gone.

Jack gave Vlad a sideways glance and said, "I blame you for this." Vlad gave him a look of disbelief coupled with irritation.

"Focus Jack," Vlad said. "I don't think we have a lot of time. We need to get this thing right on the first try."

"My Maddie. Gone. My Danny. Gone, and now my Jazzerincess. Gone. All in the Ghost Zone. Without me," Jack replied in his grand tone. "You bet your hide this thing is going to work or else my name isn't Jack Fenton!"

Vlad sighed then pointed to the nearly completed device. "Then get to work because I'd hate to have to call you George Washington or some other absurd name because you failed."

"Failure is not in my vocabulary Vladdy," Jack boomed. "Not. In. My. Vocabulary!"

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"So where exactly are we headed?" Valerie asked.

"The Speeder will lead us there," Jazz said as she pushed a few buttons and activated the homing screen. "Mom has a homing device sewn into her hazmat suit."

Tucker was just about to say something when his eyes widened and he pointed out the window. "Not her again!" The princess ghost was flying toward them.

"Want me to blast her?" Valerie asked as she readied the weapons.

"No!" Jazz and Tucker cried in unison.

"She's on our side," Jazz said urgently. "At least I think she is." The princess motioned for them to follow in the speeder and so they did. She seemed to take them on a zigzag course, which went rather contrary to the information the speeder gave about the homing device.

Valerie tried to talk Tucker and Jazz out of following the ghost, but they insisted that they trusted her, that even though it seemed like she was leading them astray, she must have a good reason for it. They stopped and she motioned for them to wait. So they waited. Valerie sighed. She was a girl of action. Sitting and waiting when she was ready to go was tough.

"Look!" Jazz said as she pointed out the window. "It's Danny." Sure enough Danny was approaching the speeder and he didn't look entirely pleased to see them.

He gestured for them to open the speeder and when he entered he looked at Jazz. "I thought I told you not to come after me!"

"I didn't you big jerk!" Jazz said then pointed to Valerie. "I was kidnapped by Valerie!" Valerie waved at Danny. He rubbed his hand over his face and shook his head.

"Excuses, excuses." Danny said and looked around. "Better leave the Speeder here. You all should hang on to me and I'll take you to our hide out."

"Hide out?" Jazz, Tucker and Valerie asked together then looked at each other stunned.

"Is there something in the air that makes everyone around here do that?" Valerie asked. "Because it's really irritating." Danny, Tuck and Jazz laughed as Danny flew them through the Ghost Zone and to the Princess' abode.

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"Mom!" Jazz yelled as she entered the princess' tower room. She threw herself into Maddie's arms and hugged her and hugged her. "I was so…um..concerned for your well being."

Maddie smiled as she returned Jazz's embrace. "I'm fine. How is your father? He didn't come with you did he?"

"No," Jazz answered. "He and Uncle Vlad are working on something to stop that Dark Dan guy." Jazz shot a look over at Sam who was still sitting in the green glowing chair. Danny was kneeling in front of her and Tucker was standing with his hand on her shoulder. Sam looked like a princess holding court instead of the Princess who was standing next to Valerie by the window, pointing out Ghost Zone landmarks.

"What happened Mom?" Jazz asked. "How did you all manage to get here?"

"We escaped Sweetie," Maddie answered then smiled her incredibly sweet smile and walked over to check on Sam who was still feeling a little dizzy. Jazz followed.

"Sam is really our hero," Maddie said. "If not for her we would have been, what was the word that ghost used Danny?"

"Toast," Danny answered.

"Yes," Maddie said. "If not for Sam's resourcefulness we would all be toast."

"I don't deserve the credit," Sam said. She was beginning to feel a little nauseous from all the spinning the room was doing. "If you hadn't pointed out the Specter Deflector I would have never thought to use it."

"But it took courage Sweetie," Maddie said as she bent down and looked into Sam's eyes. She moved Sam's head and looked at the side of her face. "That's going to leave a nasty bruise my dear." Sam sighed then looked at Danny.

"I need to go back out there," Danny said not breaking eye contact with Sam. "I need to keep Dark Dan busy. The least I can do is give Dad and Vlad a chance to get whatever it is they're working on to work."

"Yeah and how are you going to know when it's ready?" Valerie asked as she walked away from the window.

"I plan on heading to the lab first," Danny answered. "Hopefully he thinks we'll keep away from it."

"Let me go with you," Valerie said. "At least I have some ghost fighting skills. I can help."

Danny debated a moment then agreed that it might help if someone was in the Speeder to help distract Dark Dan.

"I think I should go as well," Maddie said. "I'm of more use back at the lab, and Jack is probably worried sick!"

"You're not leaving me here!" Jazz said in a huff.

"I'm going too!" Tucker declared.

Sam raised her hand. "Excuse me people," She said. "Hurt girl here! Feeling loopy. I don't want to go. I want some ibuprophen and a soft pillow to lay my aching head on." She pointed to the green glowing bed in the corner. What I don't want is to be left here alone so you better decide whose staying because I'm not going anywhere."

Danny frowned as he watched Sam. Her eyes were closed as she lay her head back in he chair. He wasn't sure whether to be grateful that she wasn't fighting to come along or if he should be worried because she wasn't fighting to come along.

"I'll stay," Jazz said in resignation. No one else was going to budge about going with Danny.

"All right," Danny said not taking his eyes off of Sam who had lifted her head and was smiling slightly at him, relief washed over him as he realized she was playing sicker than she was in order to give him a break. "We need a plan. I'm going to follow the Speeder to the lab and then I'm going to do my best to lead Dark Dan away from it.

"My prince!" The princess ghost said as she attached herself to Tucker. "When will we dance?" She eyed Valerie for a moment then hid behind Tucker.

"When all this is over," Tucker told the princess. "We will hold a big ball and you and I will dance. But only if Sam stays safe. If anything happens to Sam. No ball. She's like…My family" Sam opened her eyes and looked at Tucker and stuck out her tounge.

"I will take care of Sam." The princess promised then floated to the window.

"Man," Danny said to Jazz as he rubbed the back of his neck. "Trust it to Tucker to up the emotional ante!" Jazz laughed then looked at Valerie who was now relating to Maddie information about the device Jack and Vlad were working on. Maddie's face had gone from concerned to excited.

Finally, an uncomfortable silence grew in the room and everyone was looking at Danny. He smiled a little nervously. "Excuse me a minute?" he asked. Everyone looked at him expectantly and he blushed and walked over to Sam who had just caught on that people were waiting for a big romantic parting scene blushed as well.

Danny looked around at everyone then cleared his throat then leaned down and whispered in Sam's ear. "Pretend I'm saying something extremely sweet and romantic. Maybe giggle a little."

Sam laughed as she leaned closer to Danny and whispered back up to him. "I don't giggle!"

Danny smiled. "Yes you do." His cheek was now brushing against hers, the unbruised one.

Sam pressed her cheek closer and asked, "When?"

"Lots of times," Danny answered then he closed his eyes and breathed in the smell of Sam's hair. "I can't bring them all up now."

"Ok Mr. Romance," Sam said softly. "Hee hee hee hee."

Danny pulled away from Sam reluctantly. "Promise me you'll stay here until I come get you."

"Well," Sam said as she looked around. "It's kinda hard not to make that kind of promise. How am I going to go anywhere?" Danny shrugged and Sam closed her eyes for a moment then looked into the shining blue eyes which were still so close. "Promise me that nothing bad will happen to you Danny. Promise that you won't leave me here forever, because I'm not going to take one step from here without you."

"I promise I'll do everything in my power to get back to you safe and sound. I'll come back for you Sam. I promise." Danny hoped he could keep his word as he gently pulled Sam into his arms and hugged her.

"What no kiss?" Jazz asked in outrage as Danny let go and stepped away from Sam.

Sam looked at Danny who was blushing again and thought it was amazing that he could blush while in ghost form. She smiled wickedly and said. "Eww I don't kiss ghosts."

Danny laughed then said, "My ghost half takes serious offense to that." Sam looked at him wide eyed and serious for a moment, understanding for the first time that even though Danny was joking, it was probably true. She bit her lip then stood and put her arms around Danny and kissed him. He put his arms around her and they stayed like that, forgetting for a moment everyone in the room was watching.

Jazz's eyes bugged and she turned around, feeling a bit bad for intruding on such a sweet moment. Tucker and Valerie had no such boundaries. They both clutched their hands to their chests and said a joking. "Awwwwww." Maddie said nothing. She only smiled.

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Danny tried to fight off the sinking feeling in the pit of his stomach as they left Jazz and Sam with the Princess in her tower. He knew that for now that was the safest place for them, but he didn't like leaving Sam or his sister behind. What if something did happen and no one could come back for them? Danny shook his head. They reached the Speeder and discussed battle plans.

"Head for the lab as fast as you can go," Danny instructed. "I'll follow along and keep an eye out for Dark Dan. If he shows up I'll do my best to keep him distracted. Maybe you'll all be able to go inside and get the shield up and running again."

"I doubt the shield will work," Maddie said. "At least not without a great deal of recalibration. It takes a lot of power to get that thing to work."

With that, they were off. Danny kept himself on the alert, but the longer and longer they went without seeing Dark Dan. The more he began to worry. What if he'd been to the lab already? What if he had destroyed everything? What if… Danny stopped himself. It was no use playing the what if game.

When they finally reached the portal to the Fenton Lab. Danny went first. Vlad and Jack looked up as he peeked in then rushed back into the Zone and motioned for everyone to follow.

He reentered the lab and where Jack and Vlad were waiting questioningly. Jack smiled when the Speeder stopped and Maddie jumped out. "My Maddie!" Jack called and rushed forward and gathered his wife into his arms. "It's about time you got back!" Danny smiled as he watched his parents reunite then paused and turned to look at Vlad.

Danny felt a rush of sadness for Vlad who was refusing to look at Jack and Maddie. He was concentrating hard on the panel he was working on, but Danny recognized the pained look on the man's face, and understood, at least a little, for the first time. Poor Vlad, he had everything and nothing all at once, and more importantly he'd lost his ghost side, something that Danny knew was very important to him. Vlad looked up and caught Danny watching him. He nodded his head once then focused his attention back to his work.

"We need to hurry!" Maddie told Jack. "Who knows when that evil cad will catch up to us!"

"We're almost finished Maddie," Jack boomed as he cuddled his wife. "Thanks to Vlad's inspired work this thing is just about up and running.

Danny walked over to Vlad. "What do you want?" Vlad asked.

"I wanted to find out what you need me to do." Danny answered.

"You mean a plan?" Vlad said. "Your coming to me for a plan?" Danny shrugged and Vlad shook his head.

"If this "thing" works," Vlad started. "It should stretch over the ghost portal. Any ghost going through it will be caught. It will separate and confine any ghost hybrid, such as yourself, which goes through it. If you can get Dan through and if it works, then his ghost halves will be open to destruction and.."

"I see," Danny said. "But I'd have to go through it too…"

"Yes," Vlad replied. "We could wait…and turn it on after you came through but…"

Danny closed his eyes and sighed. "That might not work and it would be our only chance." He looked over at his mother and father who were still happily hugging. Tucker and Valerie where watching him from the door of the Speeder.

"I have the Fenton phones," Danny told Vlad. "Let me know when this device…"

"The Masters Fenton Ghost Catcher Xtractor," Vlad said.

Danny blinked and continued talking "Let me know when the…device is up and running. I'm going to look for Dan. I'll make him chase me through the portal and…"

"Sounds simple," Vlad said.

"But not easy," Danny whispered. "Definitely not easy."

"You're right Danny," Vlad said gently as he placed his hand on the boy's shoulder. "None of this has been easy. I apologize." Danny hesitated for a moment. It was on the tip of his tongue to ask Vlad what he was apologizing for, but they really didn't have time to get into it at the moment. Danny promised himself that after this was over, he would get an apology from Vlad…for everything.

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Inside Vlad's lab, Dark Dan struggled with the belt that Sam had fastened around him. The pain it caused was rather refreshing and he used it to grow strong. He had been going through a few rather weak moments, but he was finished with that. Sure it was fun playing games with them, prying into their emotions, but the time for fun was over. He just had to decide who he was going to take first. He knew Danny was going to be last. Dark Dan was going to savor the look in the boy's eyes when he realized that everyone he loved had been taken from him….and Dark Dan would feed on that pain. It was the kind of pain which kept him strong and motivated.

He took a tremendous breath then broke through the belt and without hesitation flew through the portal, intent on his appointed path. He'd destroy Valerie and Tucker first then move on from there. He'd save Maddie and Sam for last, because he was going to enjoy their fear and hearing them scream, at least, that's what he told himself.


	13. Chapter 13

**So here is Chapter 13. You can thank the weather for this one. School was supposed to start back up today, but….snow has prevented such a return, therefore I've been up since 5:30 am EST (That's 2:30 am for my friends on the west coast), typing away just for you. Enjoy.**

Chapter 13

Tucker was of the opinion that the best place to start the hunt for Dark Dan was where Danny had last seen him. Valerie felt it was absurd that they were even looking for him, that if they just made themselves visible in the Ghost Zone, like a bird with a wounded wing, he would find them. But, they had tried Valerie's idea and everyone was becoming impatient and worried.

Unfortunately showing up at Vlad's empty lab wasn't much help either. They knew he hadn't gone back to the Fenton's if he had, Maddie would have alerted them. So, where did he go?

"Maybe he decided to give up," Tucker said hopefully. Danny gave him a look that said he thought Tucker was crazy and Valerie shook her head.

"Maybe he's watching us and waiting," She said. "Maybe he's trying to figure out our plans?"

"No," Danny said as he examined the lab. "He wouldn't wait. He'd just attack."

"Uh, Danny?" Tucker asked. "He can't like…detect your presence or follow some ghostly trail you might leave can he?"

"I don't know," Danny answered as he rubbed the back of his neck. "It's possible I guess. Why?"

"Oh man!" Valerie said as she covered her mouth with her hand. She looked at Tucker. "The princess."

Tucker paled and looked at Danny. Danny's stomach began to knot as he watched Tucker processing what Valerie had said. "When the princess found us in the Speeder before, she lead us all over the place. We back tracked a lot. She must have known he could follow our trail."

"Sam and Jazz!" Danny yelled then, yet again flew through the portal. Tucker and Valerie jumped in the Speeder and barely managed to catch up with him.

"Do you think he's gonna find them?" Valerie asked Tucker.

"Yeah," Tucker said, his tone was one of defeat. "I think so.

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As soon as Jazz was satisfied that Sam didn't have a concussion, she let the Goth girl lie down and close her eyes. Sam said she was tired, but not because of her injury, but because of all the emotional ups and downs she'd been through. Jazz could certainly understand. She was kind of glad that Sam wanted to sleep, if she stayed awake Jazz would have felt the need for an in depth discussion and at the moment, she was feeling pretty weary. She could do with a few moments of silence.

Princess remained by the window and was so still that Jazz doubted that she was really there at all. This was a good opportunity to catch up with her studying. She slipped a small book out of her pocket and sat down to immerse herself in knowledge. But then there was a knock on the door.

A knock on the door? Jazz froze and looked at the princess. She wasn't moving. Someone or something knocked on the door again. Jazz put her book down and walked to the window and looked out. She couldn't see anything. She waved her hand in front of Princess' face, but she was in some sort of trance.

The knock sounded again. Jazz walked quietly to the door and held her breath as she put her ear against it. She could hear nothing. "Who is it?" she finally asked.

"It's me Jazz!" Came a voice from the other side. "It's Danny."

"Danny?" Jazz asked. "Why are you out there? Why don't you just come in?"

"Because the princess did something to the door." Danny called. "I can't enter unless you let me in. Let me in quick! Before it's too late."

Jazz hesitated for a moment then opened the door just a crack. Suddenly she was pushed back with a great woosh and muffled a cry as Dark Dan stood in the door way looking down at her. Grinning evilly.

"You were always rather gullible Jazz," he said slowly as he advanced into the room and looked around. "Did they leave you here all alone?"

Jazz said nothing. There was nothing to say. She didn't believe that it was possible to reason with this creature. She stepped back and watched as he looked over at Sam who remained blissfully unaware of his presence.

"So," Dark Dan said as he turned back to Jazz. "You have no knowledgeable little tidbits to bestow upon me. Nothing wise to say before I blast you out of existence."

Fear filled Jazz's eyes and his grin grew. It was better that she didn't speak. It made it easier, not that it was hard. He did wish that she would play along with the game a little bit. Cry and beg at the very least.

"You know," Dark Dan started, deciding that he was going to have his fun, that he wasn't going to let this girl take away the pleasure of her emotional anguish. "Had you told Danny you knew about his secret sooner, this may not have happened to me. This is all your fault Jazz."

"No it's not!" Jazz said in indignation. "It's not my fault! I'm not responsible for anything you've done. I refuse to take the blame!" She folded her arms across her chest and turned her back to Dark Dan. "Just do what you came to do. I don't want to play your games."

"But I want you to play my game Jazz," Dark Dan said ever so softly. "I like to see the lengths people will go to for the love of Danny."

Jazz turned on him. "I love my brother. I always have and always will. There is nothing you can do to change that. My only regret is I'm not going to be around to see him kick your sorry little butt into oblivion!"

"That's the Jazz I know," Dan said as he advanced ever closer. Jazz refused to move. "You were always willing to face your future with eyes open."

Jazz sighed and closed her eyes. "I won't give you the pleasure of seeing that then," She turned her back to him again. Then paused. "Dan?"

"Jazz?"

"I'm sorry," She said softly. "I'm sorry this happened to you. I'm sorry you had to go through all the pain. I'm so sorry. I…I want you to know that I forgive you. For everything that happened, I forgive you." She turned and faced him for what she figured would be the a last time and looked into his angry face.

"Tears Jazz?" Dan asked then laughed. "Are you crying tears for me?"

"No," Jazz said. "I'm crying tears for my brother who lost so much and as a result created you. I would never cry for you!"

Dark Dan grabbed her by the back of the neck. "Nothing for me and everything for him! This is his fault! Why does he deserve so much?"

"Because he's done so much!" Jazz yelled back defiantly.

Dark Dan's face filled with anger and hate. He turned and threw Jazz out the door and into the Ghost Zone. He slammed the door behind her then turned and looked at the princess, who still had not moved and was still looking out the window. Jazz was an infuriating creature. Why did he just throw her into the Ghost Zone? Why didn't he just dispatch her and be done with it?

"Because I want to break her too," Dan told himself. "I want to break her and make her see everyone suffer." He wondered where Tucker and Valerie were. They were the first on his list after all. It didn't matter though. A very pleasant diversion presented itself in the form of Goth girl Sam Mason. Danny Fenton's girlfriend. He transformed himself into the form of Danny, then smiled wickedly and walked toward the bed. He looked down at her face. This was the long ago lost Sam. Dark Dan remembered her with stinging pain and unrequited love in the weakest of his moments. He considered it a travesty that Danny should have had his chance and won her heart. He reached out and touched the bruising on her face and she stirred.

"Let me sleep Danny," she mumbled. "I don't want to fight anymore ghosts."

"You'll never have to fight another ghost again Sam," he said in a slow malignant tone as he lightly caressed her hair. "I can assure you of that.

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"No no!" Jack boomed as he pushed Vlad away from the ghost portal and turned the dial. "You have it calibrated all wrong!"

"It needs to be this way!" Vlad growled as he reached back over and changed the setting on the portal. "Otherwise everyone might just mesh together and you'll have a nasty, nasty mess."

"No!" Jack said again as he changed the setting yet again. "If you do it that way the field will weaken and one of the ghosts might escape! We need to make sure they remained contained."

"And then you risk losing your son!" Vlad yelled as he changed the setting on the dial again. "Maddie would you talk some sense into this buffoon!"

"Now boys," Maddie said as she walked over and surveyed the settings on the portal. "There is no need to fight about this. I'm sure there is a compromise."

"No!" Vlad said forcefully. "There is no compromise. Look at it Maddie and you'll see what I mean."

"Buffoon?" Jack roared. "What do you mean by buffoon?"

"I mean you're an idiot!" Vlad answered. "A big. Fat. Idiot!" Jack moved to attack Vlad but Maddie stepped in between them.

"I'm afraid Vlad's right," Maddie said and sighed.

Jack gave his wife a stunned look. "What?"

Vlad smiled. "I am?" he asked happily.

"Yes!" Maddie said as she surveyed the dials by the portal. "I think Vlad has the calibrations correct on this dial, but this other gauge. All wrong." She changed the setting slightly then turned and smiled at the two men. "See all fixed. No need to fight." She patted Jack on the shoulder then walked away. "All we need now is for Danny to send that creep through the portal!"

"You think I'm Fat?" Jack asked Vlad. Vlad sighed and covered his face with one hand.

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"Help!" Jazz screamed as she floated in the Zone. Dark Dan had thrown her so hard that she ended up pretty far from the big green door on the princess' tower.

"Come on!" Jazz yelled. "There has to be someone out here. I'm Danny Phantom's sister for goodness sake. Surely you'd come out to try to get a piece of me!" She spun upside down so that her hair was floating above her head.

Suddenly a pair of feet appeared in front of her. She looked up to see the evil smile of a green flamed haired skull.

"Hi!" Jazz said. "My name is Jazz Fenton. I'm Danny's sister. I could use a little help please." Skulker spun her to float in the other direction and gazed at her sardonically.

"I know you!" Jazz continued cheerfully. "You're Mr. Skulker. Danny told me all about you!"

"If that's so," Skulker said. "Than you are aware that the whelp and I are not exactly on friendly terms."

Jazz laughed nervously, "But I'm in a just a little bit of trouble here and I could use some help."

"Just a little bit of trouble," Skulker said then laughed. "Little girl, it looks like you are in a lot of trouble. You're coming with me!"

"No!" Jazz screamed as Skulker grabbed hold of her and they flew away.

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Danny flew pushed himself to fly faster and faster as he sped in the direction of what he hoped was the princesses' tower. He was sure that Dark Dan would completely obliterate Jazz and Sam, and he couldn't bear the thought of losing either of them.

"I can't find it!" Danny said to himself, more than a little panicked. He turned and looked back at the Speeder. He could see Tucker and Valerie inside, watching him. He took a deep breath. Jazz would have a homing device in her hazmat suit. The speeder would be able to pick it up. He turned back around in time to see something flying off in the distance. It was getting closer and closer. Danny braced himself and then opened his mouth in shock when Skulker flew by carrying Jazz.

"Daaaannnny?" Jazz yelled. "Heeeelllllp!" Danny flew after Jazz. Yelling at Skulker who laughed as he flew. Danny didn't hesitate. He wondered how Skulker came to be in possession of his sister and worried even more for Sam.

"Skulker!" Danny yelled as he caught up with the hunter. "What do you think you're doing?"

"Why I'm only helping the young lady," Skulker said innocently as he smiled at Danny. Jazz kicked and clawed at Skulker yelling for him to let her go. He did.

"Helping? How?" Danny asked.

"I found her floating out in the Zone, crying for help," Skulker answered. "So here I am helping her!"

"Dan!" Jazz yelled. "He's got Sam! Danny!"

"Can you lead be back?" Danny asked Skulker as he tried to remain calm. "To where you found her. Please?"

Skulker surveyed Danny for a moment. Danny's panic level was rising, fast. Skulker looked to the Speeder then flew over and delivered Jazz to Valerie and Tucker. He flew back over to Danny. "I will take you there," he said. "But remember boy. You owe me. Big."

"Fine!" Danny yelled. "I owe you! Now hurry!" Skulker nodded and then they were off.

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Sam felt the hand on her head and opened her eyes slowly. "Danny?" she asked as she looked at him and blinked. "What are you doing back? Is everything all right?" Her head was still aching and she felt a little disoriented.

Danny said nothing. He only looked at her. Sam sat up and put her arms around him and hugged him tight. "It doesn't matter why you're here," Sam said as she cuddled her face into his neck. "I'm just glad you are. I really don't feel so well."

Dan froze in bewilderment. A hug? He couldn't remember the last time he'd been willfully touched by a human. He was unsure how to react. Should he return the embrace? Should he reveal himself? Suddenly his brain became clouded over with emotion and he thought, it wouldn't hurt this once, just this once and he tentatively put his arms around the girl and held her gently. He felt her sigh against his neck and he clenched his fists. His seeds of hatred for Danny planted themselves ever deeper in his soul. The boy had love, admiration, friends and family. It was wrong. It wasn't supposed to be this way. Danny was supposed to be swimming in grief, guilt and pain, just as he was. Dark Dan was about to let go of Sam and reveal himself to her. Her fear and panic would infect her life. Oh yes he intended on letting her live. He would keep her with him always, she would become his slave and someday, she would love him and despise the human Danny. He smiled to himself. Something was tickling the back of his neck. He let go of Sam who, was still not quite aware of anything, and turned to find a big grinning dragon staring down at him.

"Must protect Sam." The dragon said. "Must always protect Sam!" Dark Dan jumped and threw a blast at the dragon who dodged easily. Sam screamed and the dragon hit Dark Dan with it's tale sending him careening through the green door.

"Don't hurt Danny!" Sam screamed, still not realizing that she had been tricked and Dark Dan was in her presence.

"Must protect Sam," The dragon chanted then flew off after Dark Dan before he could get his wits about him again and re-enter the room. Sam who was a little shaky and dizzy ran to the window. She was shocked when she saw the dragon fighting with Dark Dan.

"Dan?" She said to herself then shivered. "Wait!" she said then shuddered. Just who had been holding her? It wasn't Danny. "Eww Eww Eww!" she yelled she brushed off her arms. "That's just wrong!"

She looked around and wondered where Jazz was. Had Dark Dan…. "No," Sam whispered she refused to believe that Jazz had been killed by this creature. She knew very well where Princess was. The amulet was missing from the table and she was outside fighting Dan, at peril to her own self.

"Must protect Sam!" The ghost dragon chanted over and over again as it attacked Dark Dan. Dark Dan was now evading it's hits and was preparing to move in for the kill. He'd dealt with this ghost before. He knew it's weak points.

"Silly obsessive creature," he yelled and prepared a large blast, but something hit him before he could release it. A green blast at the back of his head. He turned in time to see Danny approaching.

"Ha!" he said. "How did I know you were going to show up and try to ruin everything?"

"I'm going to kick you into oblivion!" Danny yelled. "I'm sick of you Dan. I've had enough."

Dark Dan laughed. "Then come get me boy!"

"No!" Danny yelled. "You! You come get me!" With that Danny flew. Dark Dan didn't give him a moment of head start. He went after him immediately.

Tucker pushed a button on the Speeder. "Maddie? Jack? Vlad? I hope you're all ready. They're on their way!" Tucker took a deep breath and hoped they'd heard him and were ready. He looked at Valerie who took his hand.

"I hope this works," She said. Tucker nodded.

"Lets get Sam and get out of here," Jazz said as she moved to get out of her chair.

She sat back down as the dragon's face came close to the window and said. "Me want to dance with prince!" Everyone but Tucker started laughing.

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** Now I'm going back to bed. Good night.**_**  
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	14. Chapter 14

Chapter Fourteen

Danny could see the outline of the Fenton Ghost Portal just ahead as he fled from Dark Dan. He prepared himself for what was about to happen. He knew that he was going to be separated from his ghost half yet again, and he hoped that the consequences wouldn't be dire. Danny took a deep breath and rushed through the portal there wasn't time to hesitate. Dan was too close behind him.

Pain intense and deep shot through his entire system as he felt something catch and pull and rip. He felt like he was still flying though. He opened his eyes just in time to find himself about to hit, head first onto the floor of the lab.

Maddie, Jack and Vlad watched in stunned silence as Danny was first caught in the webbing across the ghost portal then torn from his ghost half. The human Danny fell to the floor gasping and the ghost half was pulled to the upper edges of the webbing. Maddie was just about to step forward when something else hit the and the webbing strained forward. The ground began to rumble and shake.

Danny managed to crawl away from the portal and look back. He could see Dark Dan thrashing around, trying to get lose from the webbing, then something began to happen. It seemed like it was slow, but it only took a few seconds for two distinct ghosts to pull away from the one being that was Dark Dan.

One creature was obviously Plasmius. It's eyes were red and it's teeth sharp. The other was Phantom. Though they were both shapeless Danny looking up at them could see the faint green eyes and his white hair. Plasmius was straining hard to reach the Phantom, it's Phantom, but it was weakened and had no will to carry on. It made eye contact with Danny. Danny opened his mouth to say something as it growled evilly at him and then disintegrated. Suddenly it ceased to exist, blinking out like a dead star. Plasmius roared in anger then turned and looked at Danny's trapped ghost half. It grinned evilly then began to claw it's way over to the cowering being, intent on taking it over and remaking itself into what would perhaps become a more powerful, more ruthless Dan, or maybe this time it would be a more powerful version of Plasmius, with none of the residual weaknesses and pain that being a part of the mourning, saddened Phantom had caused.

"Mom!" Danny cried. "Shoot it Vlad! Shoot Plasmius!"

"No!" Vlad cried as he ran forward and began ripping at the webbing to release the evil ghost being. "Don't destroy him!" The ghost half laughed and avoided Vlad's frantic clawing. The last thing it wanted was to be touched by this human.

"Mom!" Danny yelled. He stood and looked up at his ghost half. The ghost was looking back and forth between his human half, Danny and the ghost, Plasmius. Plasmius was speaking, saying something to the ghost. Danny strained to hear but he couldn't understand. Phantom hesitated for a moment then he began to reach out for Plasmius.

"No!" Danny yelled. "Vlad you have to stop them."

Tears were running down Vlad's face as he picked up his blaster and took a deep breath. "Good bye old friend." He said then for the second time that day, blasted Plasmius into oblivion. Vlad then fell to his knees and cried. Maddie and Jack looked at each other for a moment then ran forward to comfort him.

Phantom cried out as Plasmius was destroyed then struggled in the webbing. "Betrayer!" he yelled at Danny.

"No!" Danny said. "No! You know that's not true!" He reached up to touch his ghost half who hesitated then struggled to reach down and meet the human boy's hand. When they touched, the ground began to shake again and Phantom disappeared along with the webbing across the portal as it stuttered and then exploded. Danny was thrown across the room.

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Maddie ran over to her son who was laying on the floor with his eyes open, looking up at the ceiling. "Sweetie!" she called. "Are you all right?" She put her hand to the side of his face and his eyes popped open and he took several gasps of air.

"Danny?" Maddie asked again.

"I'm okay Mom," Danny said as he let her help him stand. He looked at the portal as it began to fade and lose power then blink out all together. He hoped they could get it started again. Tucker, Val, Jazz and Sam were still in the Ghost Zone and he didn't relish the thought of leaving them there for long.

Maddie hugged Danny for a moment. "I'm so sorry you lost your ghost half Sweetie." She said sadly. "I'm sorry for both you and Vlad, but maybe it's better this way."

Danny gave his mother a stunned look. He blinked at her a couple of times then looked at his hands, as if to make sure he was all there. "Yeah Mom," He said. "Maybe you're right."

"Okay V-man!" Jack said as he helped a shaky Vlad stand. "We need to get this portal working again. Jazz is still in the Ghost Zone. We need to get her back."

"All right," Vlad said as he straightened his clothing. He walked into the portal to look for burnt wires.

"I wonder," said Jack as he looked at the gauges. He pushed a button and the portal zapped into life.

"AAAGGHHH" Vlad screamed as he ran from the inside of the portal. His kept his hands covering his face. "What kind of idiot are you Jack Fenton?" Vlad asked as he uncovered his face to reveal a nasty case of ecto-acne.

"Ooohhh," Jack said. "That looks bad!"

Vlad growled at Jack and then stopped. He closed his eyes and concentrated. Two silver rings engulfed him and he changed from human form to ghost form, only this time the ghost didn't look so much like Plasmius, with the red eyes and sharp teeth. This was a kinder, gentler looking being…for now.

"Jack!" Vlad cried. "You are a genius!" he hugged a stunned Jack then flew over to Danny. "I'm sorry my boy," he said excitedly trying hard not to sound as if he was gloating. "Things are maybe better this way for you. Now you can get back to your normal life."

"Yeah," Danny said as he rubbed the back of his neck and looked at Vlad. "What about you?"

"I have seen the error or my ways Daniel," Vlad said as he floated in front of Danny. "Things are going to change. I do apologize for my behavior in the past. It was quite inexcusable."

"I'm not the only person you need to apologize to," Danny said softly then looked over his shoulder as the Speeder entered the lab. The door popped open and Jazz rushed out.

"Did we win?" She asked then looked at Vlad with wide eyes. "uh no?"

"Yes!" Jack boomed as he grabbed Jazz and hugged her. "We won Princess. That evil thing is gone! But so is Danny's ghost side."

Sam and Tucker fell from the Speeder at that announcement. They looked at Danny who was staring back at them rather sheepishly.

"Is it true Danny?" Tucker asked as he walked over to his friend. "It's gone?"

"I'm sorry," Sam said as she hugged Danny. He put his arms around her and closed his eyes.

"Wow," Valerie said. "Life is sure going to be boring from here on out." She cast a quick glance at Vlad who had transformed back to his human self and was standing around looking a little smug, even though his face was covered with ecto-acne.

"You can go back into the portal," Tuck suggested. "Isn't that what Vlad did?"

"I don't think it's a good idea," Danny said. "I really don't want to try it again. We've all been through enough. Don't you think?"

"Yeah," Tuck said wistfully. He looked at Vlad again who was now standing by Maddie. Some things though, wouldn't change.

"Oh Danny," Jazz said sadly as she rushed forward and hugged her brother. "I know how you were starting to feel about your ghost powers. I'm sorry it's all gone."

"Yeah," Danny said as he looked down. "But Dark Dan has been destroyed and I guess it's all for the better."

"What happened?" Tucker asked. "I mean how did it all go down? Dude we were sitting in the Ghost Zone terrified that your plan wouldn't work." Tucker paused. "Not that we didn't believe in you or anything."

"I don't know," Danny said as he made eye contact with Sam. "I was separated from my ghost half. The ghost half that was Dark Dan's Phantom just….vanished." he shrugged. "I don't know why. And then Plasmius tried to go after my phantom half and….Vlad he destroyed Plasmius. My Phantom half disappeared too. So that is that."

"What time is it?" Jazz asked.

"It's eight thirty," Jack answered. "Is anyone hungry?"

"No," Sam said not taking her eyes from Danny. "I have no appetite." Danny looked at the bruise on the side of her face and frowned.

"I'm not hungry either." He said thinking about how sad Sam looked and feeling sad for her himself.

"I should be getting home," Tucker sighed. He looked at Valerie. "Want to walk with me?" Valerie nodded.

"Sam and I'll go with you," Danny said and walked upstairs. Everyone watched him go.

"Poor Danny," Jazz said then sighed. "I feel so bad for him."

"Me too," said Vlad. He wouldn't be willing to change places with Danny. He never wanted to be without his ghost powers again, and he was going to do everything in his power to assure he never would. He looked at Jack warily and put his hand up to his face to cover his acne, fortunately the break out wasn't as bad this time.

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Tucker, Sam and Valerie followed Danny up the stairs and out of the house. "That ecto-acne is nasty," Tucker said as he shivered.

"Yeah," Valerie said. "I was afraid to look at him!" Everyone laughed but Danny.

"Guys," Danny said. "Do you mind if I just walk Sam home? I'm not really feeling sociable at the moment."

"No problem Dude," Tucker said. "Call me when you're ready. Maybe we can hang out at the Nasty Burger tomorrow or go to the movies or something."

"Maybe," Danny said as he took Sam's hand and walked away from them, in the other direction without saying good bye. Sam looked over her shoulder and waved, mouthing the words, "Good bye". Tucker and Valerie waved back and watched them go each feeling the heavy sadness as though they'd lost a precious friend.

Sam walked with Danny for awhile. She wasn't sure what to say. Danny had lost a part of himself and she didn't know if he was going ever be the same. She was a little worried. What part of Danny did she love the human or ghost? The boy or the hero? She watched him as they walked and decided that it didn't matter. Regardless of what had happened. His heart had to be the same.

"Valerie's right," Sam finally said breaking the long silence.

"About what?" asked Danny.

"Life is going to be a little boring from now on." Sam finished.

"Maybe," Danny said smiling a little wistfully. "You never know what surprise life might be willing to let you find around the corner."

Sam smiled slightly too. At least Danny wasn't emotionally mourning the lost of his ghost powers. "Besides," She said. "Who wants to kiss a ghost?" She looked at Danny again and he smiled at her.

Danny's smile cracked into a full blown grin then began laughing. He was laughing so hard he had to stop walking. Sam stared at him worriedly for a moment. Was he hysterical? Did he need help? Maybe he'd gone crazy.

"Sam," he said then laughed again and took a deep breath. "Oh Sam."

"What?" She asked in alarm. "What is it Danny?"

"I think my ghost half might take great offense at that statement!" he opened his eyes and looked at her and she gasped as her amethyst eyes met with glowing green!

"Danny!" She yelled in shock, exsperation and excitment.

"Going Ghost!" Danny yelled and two silver rings enveloped him and he transformed into his ghostly self. He stood there floating and smiling at Sam. Sam had to stifle a grin and a shout of joy. Maybe she shouldn't be so happy that Danny still had his ghost powers, but she was.

"Why did you let us think they were gone?" Sam asked then stepped backward as he advanced on her with a wicked gleem in his eye.

"I thought it might be nice to have it a secret again….at least for a little while," he told her then swooped Sam off her feet and flew off with her.

"So you're going to make them all figure it out? Again?" She asked as she wrapped her arms around him and held on tight. Danny nodded. "Why did you tell me?"

"Who better to tell then the person you trust the most," Danny answered. Sam laughed and buried her face into his neck. "Besides, Tucker deserves a little rest. Don't you think?"

"And no more nightmares about Dark Dan," She said.

"That nightmare is over," Danny agreed.

"What about Vlad?" Sam asked.

"I think he has a nasty surprise waiting for him if he decides to go back to his old tricks," Danny answered.

Sam sighed and was silent for awhile as she enjoyed the view of flying around Amity Park. She cuddled into Danny's arms then said, "At the risk of sounding totally cliché, I want to tell you that I love you."

"So cliché," Danny groaned. "Couldn't you think of something more original to say?"

"I'm out of ideas," Sam answered. "I've had a really long and bad day."

"Me too," Danny answered. "But it's over now and I still love you. Even if you are a weird Goth chick."

Sam pinched at Danny. "Take that back?" She growled.

"What back?" Danny laughed.

"I'm not a chick! I'm a girl," Sam growled.

"Okay! Okay! Weird Goth girl," Danny corrected as he landed on top of a near by building and they looked down at the twinkling lights of Amity Park.

"Do you think Clockwork was testing you?" Sam asked after another long lapse of silence.

"Yes," Danny said. "I think he saw the direction my life was taking and he gave me a chance to change things again. We're pretty lucky that we have him to watch over us."

"What direction were you heading in?" Sam asked wondering what Danny was talking about.

"It's not important," he said feeling happier than he had in a very long time, and more at peace too. He understood himself and his ghostly persona so much better now. "The important thing is everyone I love is safe. I know my direction, and responsiblities, and I love you. Nothing else matters right now." Sam gave him a sideways glance and he smiled.

"Would you mind kissing a ghost much?" he asked grinning hopefully.

Sam laughed and threw her arms around Danny and kissed him. "Does that answer your question?" She asked as she pulled away and smiled into his glowing green eyes.

"I think so," Danny answered, "But lets try it again." Sam laughed as she obliged.

**THE END**

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**Dearest Readers,**

**With that this story is over. I have one story to finish and then I'll probably be done with Danny Phantom fan fics (baring helping Pottersparky write if I am asked).**

**I want to thank the people who have remained so loyal to this story and so helpful to it's continuation. You know I'll never be able to look at the show the same way again. Darn them for not following my story lines LOL.**

**Pottersparky, you still and will always ROCK! I think we should write a story together, so get to thinking on what you want done, and after letting me rest awhile…maybe after I have recovered from the trauma of writing this story, we can get your ideas up and running. That is if you trust me with the brilliant ideas in your awesome brain. In many ways all three of the stories I wrote belong to you just as much as they do me. You were the first person to really encourage me. Thank you.  
**

**Anne Camp aka Obi-Quiet** , **You kept me from totally rushing this along. The length of this story goes to you….even if you still think it moves too fast. I know I could do better. It is in me to do a great deal more, but there are the obligations of life I must see to. To make the story in the way you desire, I would be forced to become nothing more than a wraith chained to this computer….unfortunately (and fortunately), I must live and breath and eat and sleep and be a human. Oh, but how in the deepest parts of my heart do I wish I could embrace writing and show you that I can take the whole thing slow and beautiful and descriptive. I desire so dearly to REALLY write, but for now I can only do so in this shallow manner, I do have a C average to maintain! Ha ha ha. Maybe if you wish, I can share a bit of my ORIGINAL work with you sometime…after Danny Phantom has left my heart.**

**Enigmatic Penguin** **your encouragement and insight kept me going even when I was tired of this fic. Your energy is contagious and you certainly infected me with your enthusiasm! **

**Yoyo-Illuser what can I say! You are awesome. Thanks for digging me out of the pit of writers block those several times and for your marvelous ideas! Thank you for your fantastic art! That picture of Dan, Danny and Vlad is to die for! I love it! You inspire me and I am honored to have inspired you!**

**RobinisDaBomb I have a promise to keep and so it shall be done. Thank you for your support. Keep writing!  
**

**Ahhhh now I feel as if I have lost my ghost powers or at the least a very dear friend. You see, night after night a beautiful ghost boy named Danny Phantom has come to stand by my bedside and gently whisper into my dreams the story he wanted told. I wish so much that he belonged to me, but he is the creation of Butch Hartman and Co. I do thank them for letting him visit. So…after I finish my promised reading, I'm going to go reflect upon my writing. Because I really did love this story and now it's over, but as Theodore "Dr. Suess" Giezel said, "Don't cry because it's over. Smile because it happened." **

**Here's to you Lau Tzu!**

**Much love to Soren Kierkegaard!**

**To anyone else I neglected to thank. You have my utmost gratitude! Thank you my reviewers. I love you all! Please feel free to continue to review and review and review…it does a writer's heart good.**


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